Bin alterations cause 'chaos' as rubbish piles in Bridgnorth

The changes to Veolia's collection routes came into effect from Monday, but some residents reported that they only received notification days after the alterations were made.

People in the centre of Bridgnorth are known to be affected, and people have also experienced the problem in surrounding parishes such as Highley.

Councillor Dave Tremellen, who represents Highley on Shropshire Council, said the confusion had caused "total chaos".

One Highley resident said they had been expecting a leaflet giving details of the changes to be left on their bin, but instead had to claim to be a 'new resident' on Shropshire Council's website to find their collection day had been altered.

Councillor Tremellen said: "I am personally very angry about it.

"It reflects on me as the local member, but it's been impossible to tell residents whose bin was likely to be emptied when because there is no pattern to it as all of the collection routes have been changed."

In a letter to Councillor Tremellen, Shropshire Council's waste contracts manager confirmed collection calendars should have been sent via the post rather than put under bin lids as usual.

Councillor David Cooper, who represents Castle ward on Bridgnorth Town Council, said he was told his collection day would be changed from Tuesday to Monday, on Tuesday afternoon.

He added: "The distribution of the flyers by post has been a bit sporadic and some people received their notification after things changed, and others didn't at all.

"Fortunately I remembered to check online and managed to notify as many people as I could which saved some inconvenience.

"But really I do think Shropshire Council and Veolia could have communicated better here.

"From what I gather, some people are having a change of day for their recycling, and others for residual waste, and some for both.

"There is some confusion and there's the potential for this confusion to go on for the next couple of weeks.

"I would have liked to have seen a press release about it and something publicised online as well."

A spokesman for Shropshire Council said: "Our recycling and waste partner Veolia has undertaken a major change to its collection services from its Bridgnorth depot in order to make the service more efficient and reduce the distances that the collection lorries need to travel on their rounds. As part of the service change new calendars and postcards were produced to help inform members of the public.

"Unfortunately, there have been delays in the delivery of the calendars/postcards from the sorting office to households. This was the part of the process that was outside our control and we apologise for any confusion.

"However, residents can check their collection days through the council website at shropshire.gov.uk/recycling-and-rubbish/when-is-my-bin-collected."