THURROCK Council leader Cllr Andrew Jefferies has been accused of either 'misleading' councillors or 'just not having a clue' what's going on.

Labour councillor, Val Morris-Cook has challenged him 'to come clean and set the record straight' after alleging Cllr Andrews exaggerated take-up of the new £80 charge for use of a brown bin for garden waste.

Cllr Jefferies was responding to a question at full council about changes to the authority's brown garden waste collection service - and about the limited information given to residents. He told members that take-up of a new £80 charge had already achieved 20 per cent, which equates to 11,650 permits issued.

However, Cllr Morris Cook who is shadow portfolio-holder for environment said the actual figure when he spoke was just over four per cent.

Indeed, at the previous evening's meeting of the cleaner, greener and safer overview and scrutiny committee, the council's new assistant director for street scene and leisure, Paul Southall told members that 2,430 residents had signed up, which is only a fifth of the numbers required just for the service the break even.

Cllr Morris-Cook, who chaired the O&S meeting, said after full council: "With break-even at 20% take-up, failure to achieve anything like the 20% figure could lead to a budget shortfall of up to £700,000 and put more pressure on the beleaguered services of the cash-strapped council.

"It is very disappointing I did not have the opportunity to correct Cllr Jefferies' as he used information that I knew was wrong.

"Cllr Jefferies either knew what he was saying was incorrect and tried to mislead councillors and the public to cover for a potential budget shortfall, or he just doesn't have a clue what's going on.

"Whatever it is, he got it wrong. He should now come clean and set the record straight."

Questioned at the full council meeting about the lack of notification about the telephone subscription service, Cllr Jefferies spoke about how residents do have a choice, though he didn't explain why it was not shown on the leaflet.

He said "They can call the contact centre where a subscription to the service can be set up and the payment taken.

"Residents who may have difficulty preventing them from joining the service online or through contact centres can get a friend or relative to help them

"Every household has received a letter saying what the new service is. There's a whole new campaign about to start informing people about changes to the bins service.

Asked about the response to the sign-up leaflet, Cllr Jefferies said: "We are aware that 20 per cent of the borough has already signed up" and, after saying that every house in the borough had received a leaflet, he was asked how he knew that.

He said: "The distributors have GPS so we are able to track where they have gone and which streets they have gone into so I am fairly confident hat whilst there may be one or two houses that are still to be delivered to, the vast majority of them have received a letter from the council."

At the previous evening';s meeting Mr Southall had recognised that nbot all areas had received leaflets, though he said they were 'few and far between'.

Meanwhile, following borough-wide concern that the leaflet did not explain how people who are not online, or have access to the internet, can sign up, Thurrock Nub News has 'road-tested' the alternative method that residents can use.

On Monday Nub News editor Neil Speight, a borough resident, visited the civic offices and asked how he could sign up, there and then, and pay.

He was directed to a council telephone and put through to the council's call centre, which had a recorded message advising that the call was in a queue.

After an initial wait of more than 20 minutes, Mr Speight hung up, and tried again about 45 minutes later. This time, after about 10 minutes, he got through and explained he was in the building and wanted to sign up.

The operator informed him that it would be easier if he could use the online service. Mr Speight said he wished to do it without recourse to an online service, to replicate the situation that non-online users faced.

He was then taken through a process that took about 10 minutes to register details of his home and was then asked to pay using a debit or credit card. He was told there was no alternative and he could not pay cash so he did register and pay.

However, to do so, he had to get a call back to a mobile phone and when that call came through, it came up with a London-registered '020' number.

After a further conversation with the call handler's supervisor, when the 'road test situation was explained, he was told that if there was no alternative, a method could be found for people to pay in cash at the civic offices.

Mr Speight said: "It was a far from perfect system, but in the end the job was done, though I know a great many people would prefer to deal with an officer face-to-face in the offices – and also have the benefit of being able to sit, not stand and use a phone which does not even have a shelf on which to place anything, with nowhere to sit.

"It wouldn't be amiss, surely to put a couple of desks with chairs and a phone in the building which was designed to be a 'welcoming space' for residents.

"I am also concerned that anyone getting that call back, and seeing a London, not a Thurrock number, might not unrealistically have a concern they were subject to a scam!

"Little things, of course, but vitally important and it shows to me that this process has really not been thought out very well.

"I should add the person who dealt with my call was excellent and patient. It's not the call handler's fault this system isn't great."

Anyone wishing to register by phone should call 01375 366071.