MORE than 15,000 complaints have been made to Denbighshire County Council since its implementation of a new waste collection system, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

On June 3, Denbighshire County Council introduced changes to recycling and waste collections, including new containers and weekly collections for recyclable materials, and the scrapping of the blue wheelie bin.

Since then, some residents have been required to separate their “dry” recycling using a new three-tier “Trolibocs”.

But the council has so far issued multiple apologies for residents across the county not having their bins collected on time, if at all, since June 3.

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A Freedom of Information request submitted to the council asked for a breakdown of the number of complaints since the new system began.

The council responded by saying that, between June 3 and July 25, a total of 15,607 complaints were logged with its customer services system.

This was broken down into the following categories:

  • General waste enquiry – open complaints: 1,603

  • General waste enquiry – closed complaints: 1,958

  • Missed bin collection – open complaints: 3,087

  • Missed bin collection – closed: 8,959

In addition, the council said that 16 formal (Stage Two) corporate complaints were made about waste services between June 3 and July 26.

“Draft proposals” have also been considered regarding a scrutiny inquiry into the new waste collection system, meanwhile.

The council said it also has crews out on Saturdays, focussing on key areas which have been missed so far, and staff from other council services have been re-deployed to help with tasks to support the frontline collection crews.

A council spokesperson said last month: “Denbighshire County Council recognises and has apologised for the impact of missed collections on residents as we roll-out the new waste and recycling collection service.

“We have experienced a number of issues, which is to be expected with a service change of this scale.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and doing what we can with the resources available.

“We expect that the difficulties will ease as the temporary measures set out above take effect and the new service is embedded.”

Gareth Davies, Vale of Clwyd MS, said: “The sheer number of complaints that have flooded into Denbighshire County Council should tell them how angry people are at their display of incompetence over the past two months.

“To add insult to injury, residents’ enquiries have been ignored and my constituents were left in the dark as to when, or whether, their bins would be collected.

“I am pleased that that Denbighshire County Council have apologised, but we need to see improvements made quickly, with residents kept in the loop.”