THURROCK Council's lead member for the environment has apologised to residents whose brown waste bins were not collected for several weeks.

However, he has played down the severity of the missed collections, despite a resident's assertions that the problem has gone on for weeks and complaints have been ignored.

The council turned out to collect and empty the missed bins, in Daiglen Drive in South Ockendon, on Tuesday (13 July) within a couple of hours of Thurrock Nub News raising the issue after a resident contacted us in desperation.

He said: "What on earth is going on with the collection of brown bins in particular in Daiglen Drive, which have not been collected for months, and to a lesser extent in Grange Road, Aveley? The lack of communication and action on behalf of the council is appalling.

"The brown bins have not been touched since the strike was over, despite numerous complaints on the council's online system which I have logged and a message to the leading councillor concerned earlier in July.

"It's seems utterly unacceptable that these bins have not been collected and the council have not taken swift action to resolve the situation.

"I have been chasing Thurrock Council and I understand others have been doing the same, for weeks. The particular concern is not just the fact that the brown bins have not been collected, but the lack of concern around the fact that the bins have not been collected!

He told us several complaints to the council – and a message to ward councillor Andrew Jefferies had been ignored – but just hours after our intervention, bin crews arrived to dispose of the accumulated waste

However, on Wednesday, after the bin teams had belatedly sprung into action, Cllr Jefferies, the cabinet member for environment, told us: "According to our systems Thurrock Council has received no other complaints about missed bins in Daiglen Drive and only one complaint in relation to this issue, which is unfortunate and I apologise to anyone who is inconvenienced.

"However this particular complaint is being dealt with and will be responded to directly.

"Bins need to be left at the front of the property at the agreed collection point for our waste crews to collect them.

"Brown bin collections take place every two weeks on a schedule which is published on the council's website. For Daiglen Drive, South Ockendon, brown bin collections are scheduled for today (Wednesday, 14 July) and then again on Tuesday 27 July.

"If any resident has a bin missed I would ask them to report it on the council web site thurrock.gov.uk/missedbins so that it can be properly investigated and resolved.

"If any resident has an issue which means they are unable to leave their bins at the front of their property for collection I would ask them to contact [email protected] to apply to the council to find out if they meet the required criteria for an assisted collection."