Just when people have stacks more rubbish to dispose of with discarded Christmas packaging, so Maidstone council is having trouble with its bins collection.

The council acknowledged there has been disruption to collections over the past few months, blaming vehicle breakdowns, traffic congestion, staff sickness and driver shortage. The council even said that parked vehicles had sometimes prevented access to homes.

On average around 10 to 15 rounds have been delayed each week - that’s about 15% of the total number of collections.

Householders have usually still had their rubbish collected, as long as continued to leave their bins out, but up to 48 hours late.

However, the council said it was pulling out all the stops to rectify the problem.

It has arranged with its contractors to start one hour earlier - at 6am - and has added two more vehicles to the fleet, recruited five extra staff and introduced dedicated crews to re-attempt collections where they have been missed.

Jennifer Shepherd, the council’s head of environment and public realm said: “Maidstone Borough Council would like to apologise for the disruption to the refuse and recycling service over the past few months.

“Regrettably the disruption to service has been due to a combination of issues, predominantly vehicle breakdowns, and restricted access to areas which have resulted in collections being repeatedly delayed.

“We are very sorry to the residents who have been affected and continue to work with Biffa to deliver a more reliable service. The collection crews are working hard to catch up, including shifts across the weekends, which both MBC and Biffa are extremely grateful for.”

She said: “If we can ask residents to put their bins-out the night before or by 6am to accommodate the earlier collections we would appreciate it and would be really grateful if residents can take extra care and consider where they park, especially over the Christmas period, to ensure that our vehicles are able to gain access.”

From mid-January, the council is introducing 360-degree cameras to its vehicles in order to help evidence the issues their crews face and to monitor performance.

Details of refuse collections across the borough of Maidstone during the festive season can be found on the council’s website

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