A council has issued another apology over late and missed bin collections, after some residents were left waiting four weeks for their waste to be picked up.

The authority admits the levels of service across the Folkestone district "just isn't good enough" with collections "taking longer than expected".

The problems started last month, after Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) and Veolia said they were "working together" to make collections more streamlined and reliable.

This included adjusting some of the routes, times and days of collections to make them "more efficient".

But it has left some residents confused over their collection days, with some homes being missed altogether.

One woman in Hythe said her bins haven't been emptied in four weeks.

Another Hythe resident joked that the new system seemed to have gone "virtual". "It's great", he said. "So much greener than before. No diesel fumes, no noisy trucks, no carbon footprint.

"Now we just have to find a way to make the bin contents disappear."

Another resident said that she had "seen waste trucks go around" without the bins actually being emptied: "Before, it was like clockwork, the bins were emptied by 8am every time, more or less."

One Folkestone homeowner complained the collections are "all over the place": "My recycling hasn't been collected for over a month, and landfill for over two weeks."

Veolia signed a new eight year contract in January this year.

The contract value for two districts - those being Dover district and the Folkestone and Hythe district - is £8.754m per year.

"This just isn't good enough and we apologise to all residents affected..."

Missed collections and bins being left on the side of roads has also affected residents in Dover, as routes and collection times were also changed there.

The council apologised at the end of May, saying collection rates were at 93%.

But today, the authority has issued another apology, admitting the problems are still happening.

A spokesman said: "We'd like to apologise to all residents who are experiencing problems with our waste collection service at the moment, as a result of route changes put in place by our contractor.

"We expected some teething problems just due to the sheer number of properties affected by the route changes and had asked you to bear with us while the changeover took place.

"However, the changes are taking longer than expected to bed in which means that the normally excellent levels of collection services aren't being met for a large number of households.

"This just isn't good enough and we apologise to all residents affected.

"Please be assured that waste crews on the ground are working extremely hard to collect missed bins and ensure the service gets back to normal as soon as possible.

"If your collection is delayed please leave your bins out and we'll get to you as soon as we can.

"Where possible, please secure your rubbish so that it doesn't get blown away.

"Thanks once again for your patience and understanding."

For more information about collections, click here.

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