Epping Forest council apologises after dozens of missed bin collections

Some streets were missed entirely after changes were made to waste collections

People have been left with their rubbish piling up after a council error meant some streets had their bin collections missed. Epping Forest District Council attributed problems to the rollout of its separate food and garden waste collections on March 31.

Households were meant to receive new brown kerbside and kitchen caddies for food waste, which are due to be collected weekly. However, the council said it experienced ‘a few minor difficulties’ with its new vehicles and collection routes, and also blamed issues with ‘new computer systems’, which meant that some streets’ food waste was not collected.

At the time, the council told those who had been missed to put food waste into their black bins and to report a missed delivery. The council said its crews had been sent out over the Easter weekend to complete any outstanding collections for streets that had been missed.

It said at the time: “If your food waste caddy hasn’t arrived yet, please place your food waste in your black refuse bin for now and report a missed delivery. Once reported, please allow up to 10 working days for the caddy to be delivered. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Since the error, the council apologised for the mistakes, saying: “We want to apologise for these teething issues and extend our sincere thanks and appreciation for everyone’s patience as the service settles in, and look forward to delivering continued improvements for our district.”