MISSED bin collections increased by nearly 650 per cent in the months following the roll-out of the new wheelie bin scheme, it has been revealed.

In June, more than 58,000 bins were distributed to households across the district by Tendring Council in a bid to encourage recycling.

The thousands of homeowners who received one of the new waste bins were moved to a fortnightly collection, but “teething problems” cast the initiative in a negative light.

Complaints regarding missed refuse collections then started to pile-up at an alarming rate and the scheme was lambasted by both residents and their council representatives.

Some even reported witnessing their neighbours blocking the entrances to their own streets with bags of rubbish in protest and to highlight the volume of waste being left.

A Freedom of Information Request has now revealed the staggering increase in missed bin collections within the two months following the launch of the roll-out.

In June, 507 bins failed to be collected across the entire district, but just a month later, this figure had surged up to 2,351.

Despite the warning signs, the issues were not tackled effectively, and the number continued to rise and rise as the weeks passed.

According to the report, in August alone, 3,798 bins were left uncollected resulting in some households having to store hordes of rubbish before the binmen’s next visit.

The data gathered is a combined total of refuse, garden and food waste, as well as the recycled rubbish for which the green and red boxes are used.

Mark Stephenson, chairman of the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said he isn’t shocked to hear the number of missed collections has skyrocketed.

He said: “I think this comes as no surprise because the roll-out has been plagued with many problems.

“Residents have been forced to suffer missed collections on a regular basis.

“This continues to be the case despite promises from the Cabinet that everything is okay.

“This is one of the reasons why I have brought the scrutiny of this roll-out forward in the council agenda.”

Michael Talbot, Tendring Council’s councillor responsible for environment, asked for patience from residents while the new system bedded in.

He said: “We apologise for any disruption caused, and have always said the new system could take up to six months to see teething problems resolved while we, with our contractors, carry out this wholesale change.

“This is a huge project to undertake but an important one and one that will make a real difference. It is worth putting these figures into context.

“In August only 1.1 per cent of collections were missed, and, while we aim for zero, given the scale of transition for me that is a reasonable figure.

“We understand residents’ concerns and are working hard with Veolia to minimise disruption and stabilise the service as quickly as possible.

“Crews are working weekends to ensure that, even if a collection day was missed, all materials are collected for that particular week.

“As the new system is bedding in, the number of missed collections is falling and that is the key point for me.

“I acknowledge some residents still have problems, but one of the objectives was to drag up our poor recycling rates and this is being achieved from 26 per cent in July 2018 to 36 per cent this July, before the roll-out was complete.”