A local authority which has been at the centre of a bin collection fiasco says getting things right is now its "top priority”.

Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has apologised for the “disruption caused” to residents since a new waste and recycling contract began.

Suez Recycling and Recovery UK took on the £152 million contract that started on March 25 and will run for eight years.

It was previously been run by Biffa.

The Mid-Kent Waste Partnership – comprising of Maidstone, Swale and Ashford councils – promised the new providers would “improve reliability, reduce the environmental impact and provide a more efficient service” for the 460,000 people living under the authorities.

But KentOnline revealed the inside story of the six weeks of chaos which has seen people going weeks without their bins being emptied as well as councillors paying out of pocket to clear bins.

Suez apologised and pledged to catch up with the backlog of uncollected waste by the end of April and took on more staff to deal with it.

MBC says it has also redeploying some of its own staff to assist Suez.

The provider will not face any repercussions at the moment as the contract includes a three-month grace period which ends on June 25 – understood to be industry standard to allow for new working practices to bed in and for staff to learn new rounds and understand the most efficient use of vehicles.

Cllr Clive English, MBC Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Enforcement, says the contractors “require time” for the service to be “more resillent”.

He said: “As part of the waste and recycling service contract, new collection routes and vehicles were introduced that will ultimately make the service more resilient.

“These will require time before an optimum service can be achieved.

“However, the level of disruption from these changes has been higher than anticipated as the SUEZ teams become familiar with the new routes.

“It is essential that this service is running properly, and the Council is ensuring that our contractor, SUEZ, is working as hard and as quickly as possible to rectify all of the issues.

“We are sorry for the disruption caused to our residents and would like to thank them for their patience. We can reassure them that getting the service right is our top priority.”

The authoirty said that it is reciving a higher number of enquries than usual and people can save time waiting on the phone by going to its website where the latest information about wastes services is updated.

Services including when their bin collection day is and how to report a missed bin can be seen here as well as a list of FAQs and responses about the new contract.

MBC also says it continues to review all responses received in order to help develop a shared understanding of the hot spots affected.

This information helps, it says, to improve the reliability of the new service and although the Council may not be able to respond directly to all queries.