Under-fire contractor Serco is still failing to meet bin collection targets - despite Canterbury City Council making them three times easier to hit.

After the firm’s woeful performance last year, the authority increased the number of missed collections it allows from 23 to 75 in every 100,000, as well as pumping an extra £140,000 a year into the service.

But a new performance review reveals Serco is still falling short of the standards expected, despite some improvements.

It will add weight to calls for the authority to snub any bid the firm makes to renew its contract when it ends in 2021.

Canterbury Labour leader Alan Baldock said: “Serco came to the council cap in hand, promised the earth and delivered nothing, and our residents are continuing to pay for a bad service.

“Time and time again we get bins left behind and people are absolutely cheesed off with it.

“Certainly under our adminstration, we would not be getting Serco back in after 2021 and will look to bring it in-house, or have some sort of co-operative, rather rather than give it to a company which has to make profits.

“I’m incredibly disappointed for residents but we are stuck with a bad service now.

"The sooner we end it the better, but we have to be realistic as the amount of time it would take to set up a new contract, would coincide with the end of the Serco one.”

Council leader Simon Cook says the latest figures indicate a positive change, saying that original targets may have been “unrealistically high”.

He said: “I think the extra money we put in has stabilised the situation and Serco has pulled its socks up and we are going in the right direction.

“My inbox is certainly a lot less full of complaints from residents about collections than it used to be.

"It is very early days to be thinking about what we will do in the future after 2021 but we will be looking to provide the most efficient and best service to residents.”

In his review, which was considered by the council’s community committee, the authority’s director of commissioned services, David Ford, says improvements with the bin collection service have been seen over the past three months.

He says the emphasis has moved to areas where properties are regularly missed, as well as overcoming access issues.

“The summer months saw a large volume of roadworks which impacted on the service across the district,” he says.

“This autumn will see more work being done around contaminated bins.”

Mr Ford says new targets introduced for assisted collections - for people who struggle to put their bins out due to age, disabilities or ill health - have resulted in a dramatic improvement in the past six months.

“Although not yet quite reaching the target, work continues to improve the service,” he said.

“Work is currently being done to reduce the assisted collections which are repeatedly missed by certain crews.”