Angry residents have written to Dartford councillors calling for a recycling rethink after bins were found overflowing over the Christmas break.

A disruption to the collection schedule led to particular delays in Stone and Swanscombe with extra services now put on to catch up.

Pictures showed streets lined with overflowing bins with rubbish piled on top and strewn across the pavements and grass verges.

Flytipping was also reported to the council after furniture and fridges were incorrectly discarded by roadside bins.

Dartford council said yesterday its crews were reporting "minor delays" to the service.

"Refuse, recycling and garden waste are being collected but residents have been told to expect some possible delays due to the current situation," it tweeted from its designated refuse and recycling account.

"All collections for refuse, recycling and garden waste are taking place but please expect some possible delays due to the current situation."

The authority added it hopes to remain as "open as possible with the issues" its crew faces.

It pointed to a revised schedule over the Christmas/New Year period and that its contractor Urbaser had been hit by staffing issues due to Covid-19.

The authority says it has since arranged collections for "excess waste" this week and next with additional dustcarts emptying wheeled bins and more crews in smaller vehicles collecting side waste and dumping.

In the meantime it urged residents to remain patient and to park considerably to allow access for vehicles.

But Dartford Labour councillors Kelly Grehan and Emma Ben Moussa believe the issue is long-standing and have urged action be taken to avoid a repeat in the future.

Both have written to Dartford council to raise their concerns regarding wards "plagued with serious litter problems".

They said: "We believe this situation has worsened over the last year with people increasingly reliant on delivery services and many activities previously taking place at home, which previously would occur elsewhere. such as in the workplace.

"But even before then we have seen diabolical quantities of litter in our areas.

"We were hopeful that deep cleans would make a difference, but it is our conclusion that they are ineffective in highly populated areas such as ours where vehicles are in the way of machinery and excessive amounts of litter is in places like overgrown bushes."

The councillors, who represent the Stone and Swanscombe wards respectively, also took aim at the scheduling of Christmas collections which they believe added to the problem.

"In the period when most people produce the most waste there is the biggest gap between bin collections," they said.

"At present bins in parts of the borough, including that which we represent have not been collected for almost two weeks, after collections were not completed on Saturday."

In response, the councillors have called for extra cleaning to take place in worst hit areas and plans be put in place to avoid a recurrence over future bank holidays.

It follows a debate on the council's waste and recycling service at a Dartford Council policy overview committee meeting held last month.

During the meeting Cllr Ben Moussa expressed her concern at the council's 25% recycling rate, which was the lowest recorded in Kent.

It was also mooted whether the recycling service should be changed from a fortnightly service to a weekly collection in response to resident's concerns.

The cabinet member for waste and environment Cllr Steve Brown (Con) reminded members residents had been asked on three separate occasions of their recycling preferences.

He said they had consistently declined a specific food waste service and expressed their satisfaction with the big black bin option.

"In the period when most people produce the most waste there is the biggest gap between bin collections,"

Given the consistent responses from residents dating back a number of years he explained the council had no immediate plans to change or expand its current waste or recycling service.

The chairman Councillor Matthew Davis (Con) also advised members that Dartford was the "top council in Kent in terms of resident satisfaction" and said the onus was therefore on any disgruntled neighbours to come forward and request changes.

However, in the event the government demands local authorities to improve recycling rates it was said residents should be canvassed for their views again.

The recycling service had suffered a similar impact to its operation following the first lockdown in March but was not suspended – as was the case with other areas of Kent.

Swanscombe was reported to be the worst area for cleanliness, with the high level of parked cars impacting the ability of waste collectors to undertake street cleaning operations.

Over the course of 2020/21 the council has committed to a spend of around £1m on street cleaning activities.

Urbaser was awarded a five year contract to run waste collection and street cleansing services in 2019 and its crews operate across the county – including in Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells.

The authority's waste team is currently reviewing the service with Urbaser with the aim of rescheduling where required and finding ways to use the resource it provides more effectively.

Dartford council spokesman Caroline Green said: "It’s not surprising that people generate more rubbish over Christmas and New Year.

"Typically we collect around 25% more household waste over this period, and we try to help our residents by relaxing our usual policy on side waste so that they can put out waste in excess of what will fit in their wheeled bins.

"We arrange extra resources to collect the excess waste – this week and next we have extra dustcarts emptying wheeled bins, and they are being supported by extra crews in smaller vehicles collecting side waste and dumping.

"Inevitably, dealing with all of the excess waste takes longer than usual, and the crews are therefore working to our revised post-Christmas/New Year collection schedule."

Collections will return to the normal schedule from Monday January 18. Click here to view the latest revised dates.

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