COUNCIL bosses say the town’s waste service is improving, despite auditors finding a number of major issues.

Last year, a damning report found 13 major problems, including trade waste being collected from firms which are not customers and waste vehicles not being weighed correctly at the Shrub End waste depot.

But the latest assessment shows the number of serious problems has reduced to two.

They centre on the council’s administration and contracts, some of which show no payment was received for the mixed glass collected from Colchester residents in much of 2011 and 2012.

Auditors Mazars said: “Our work indicates weaknesses in the system of internal controls are such as to put the council’s objectives at risk.”

The service’s overall assessment has been classes as “limited assurance”, an improvement from last year’s “no assurance”.

Errors discovered included 145 recycled fridges being mistakenly recorded as 145 tonnes and a complaint first recorded between July and October 2014 having been “closed” in January 2014.

Chris Dowsing, group manager for recycling and waste, said: “Recyclables are a global commodity, so they go up and down over time.

“It’s supply and demand, so if there is a lot of packaging, mixed glass or whatever in the market, the value in turn goes down.

During that time, there was no recyclable value in mixed glass. The high value is clear glass.”

He added: “The reason we would continue to collect it is because potentially the price will rise again in a few months’ time.”

Mr Dowsing said the council also takes its environmental role extremely seriously and it is good practice to collect recyclables to make sure they do not go to landfill.

Colchester residents pay more than £100 a tonne at landfill. He put other problems down to human error.

Nick Barlow, Colchester councillor responsible for waste, said: “We run regular audits to ensure we have an opportunity to take on board any recommendations for improvement. It is also a chance for councillors to ensure that we are meeting the necessary legislative requirements and professional standards.

“In particular, the assurance ratings for the recycling and waste service have either increased or remained the same and those, where there were still small issues, have already been rectified, which is really positive news.”

He added the service has made “significant progress” since the damning report 18 months ago.