THURROCK Council has responded quickly to public questions and expressions of concern about stickers being put on some council waste bins.

The queries arose after a team of council staff were spotted driving around parts of the borough and marking bins with a yellow, diamond-shaped icon.

It was being sprayed on.

The council has confirmed that the process is being done to improve its assisted bin collection service.

Earlier this week Thurrock Nub News reported on a local government ombudsman report that highlighted problems with the current procedure and in particular issued that negatively affected a disabled resident.

A statement from the council's interim assistant director for street scene, Paul Southall, told Nub News: "A yellow diamond sticker indicates that the resident is on an assisted collection and this is easily identifiable to the collecting team, ensuring they go to the pre agreed collection point to collect the bin.

"Whilst the team have been waiting for an order of replacement stickers to arrive and to ensure residents on assisted collections are still identifiable to the crews, they have applied a yellow diamond to bins using a pre-cut template and yellow paint.

"This isn't ideal and I have instructed the team to ensure that adequate stock of the assisted stickers are maintained so this doesn't happen again."