A COUNCIL boss says he is satisfied with the rollout of a new waste system despite admitting "there is no magic wand to wave" to solve a litany of reported problems with missed collections.

More than 57,000 wheelie bins are being delivered to homes across Tendring as the council looks to switch thousands of homes to a fortnightly collection service.

More than 11,000 households will continue with a weekly black sack collection, although collection dates have changed.

Earlier in the rollout, Tendring Council experienced such high demand for boxes to store recycling materials the authority's supply ran dry.

Residents have frequently reported missed collections, no delivery of wheelie bins and confusion over collection dates.

At a meeting of the full council on Tuesday, councillor Mick Barry asked the council's waste boss Michael Talbot whether he was satisfied with the rollout.

Mr Talbot admitted there had been issues, but added "all which can be done is being done."

"Yes, I am satisfied," he said.

"Nothing is ever perfect.

"There is no magic wand to wave, this task is absolutely enormous since it involves 69,478 households in Tendring. "I cannot deny there have been problems, but these were expected."

He added: "The telephone enquiry lines have been difficult to use to contact the council, none withstanding the employment of additional staff.

"The experience from colleagues in other authorities is the introduction of wheelie bins is a bit traumatic, with many problems and complaints for almost a year - but from then onwards the vast majority of residents who have a wheelie bins are very happy with them and ask why they didn't have them before."

Mr Barry said: "In my area, Brightlingsea, there have been collections missed for six weeks.

"There have been rats and maggots in bins. "I don't know what you learned from other authorities, but I am not reassured it takes a year for these things to die down."

Mr Talbot revealed a survey had been conducted across the first five weeks of the wheelie bin rollout.

He said when compared with the same period last year, 44 per cent more food waste is being collected, 29 per cent more garden waste and 11 per cent more plastic, bottles and tins.