Bin rounds are being changed across a borough in a bid to improve an under-fire waste service.

More than 9,300 households in Sittingbourne, Faversham and on Sheppey will have their waste collected on different days.

This is part of several measures being introduced by Swale council which will come into effect from Monday, September 16.

It says these will help to provide a “more reliable service” and comes after conducting a “thorough” review where it looked at the number of properties on a round, vehicle access issues, and the types of vehicles being used on rounds.

Off the back of the probe, which is still ongoing, the authority is rebalancing collections throughout the week while making changes to routes and the types of vehicles used.

The residents whose days are changing – one in eight of all people living in Swale – will be informed via a letter.

The day changes may mean some households will receive the same type of collection two weeks in a row during the transition period.

Garden waste and clinical waste services will remain unaffected by these changes.

Suez Recycling & Recovery has been operating the authority’s waste programme since March as part of the eight-year and £152 million Mid-Kent Waste Partnership contract serving some 460,000 residents across Swale, Maidstone and Ashford.

The council admits that “while improvements have been made, the service is not yet performing as well as expected”.

The problems were laid bare during a Swale council meeting on July 24 where it was revealed that, up to July, 2 there had been 36,468 reports of missed collections since Suez took over.

Following the end of a three-month grace period on June 25, it is understood the firm has had to pay “punishment” fines to the councils concerned.

There were also fears matters were set to be made worse by a bin worker strike by members of the GMB union over pay disparity.

But a new pay offer from Suez saw workers ballot against taking industrial action.

Cllr Rich Lehmann (Green), chair of the council’s Environment and Climate Change committee, says the changes may bring “short-term disruption” but will result in an improved service.

He added: “We know the contract has got off to a rocky start, and we sincerely apologise for the disruption and frustration people have suffered.

“We have spent a considerable amount of time and effort working to improve collections, but it’s clear that to make the final push to reach the level of service we want, we must make some changes to the rounds.

“The majority of people will continue to have the same collections on the same day as now, but it may be at an earlier or later time in the day.

“We know this isn’t ideal, and the changes are likely to cause some short-term disruption, but we believe this will help us move the service towards where we need it to be.

“We are writing to those households affected to let them know their new days, and what the arrangements are during the transition. If you haven’t received a letter, then there will be no changes to your collection.”

People living in Swale have also been asked for their opinions on the waste contract.

The council's website will continue to display the current collection schedule until after the last scheduled collection before the changes take effect.