MISSED bin collections rocketed from 500 to more than 3,700 a month after the roll-out of the new wheelie bin scheme.

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

Homeowners who received one of the new bins were moved to a fortnightly collection.

Complaints regarding missed refuse collections started to pile up and the scheme was lambasted by residents and councillors.

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

In June, 507 bins failed to be collected across the district. A month later, this figure had surged to 2,351. In August, 3,798 bins were left uncollected.

The figures are a combined total for refuse, garden and food waste, as well recycling.

Mark Stephenson, chairman of the council’s resources and services scrutiny committee, said he was not surprised to hear the number of missed collections.

He said: “This comes as no surprise because the roll-out has been plagued with 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 OK.”

Michael Talbot, Tendring Council’s councillor responsible for environment, 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.

“We are also working with our contractors to identify hotspot rounds to make any alterations needed.

“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.”