AFTER more weeks of missed or delayed blue and brown bin collections, Thurrock Council continues to prove itself incapable of delivering the waste collection service to residents it keeps promising.

The authority has already undertaken several reviews and 'resets' of the service, brought in 'experts' on big wages to solve the consistent managerial failures and promised it will fix the problems.

Council leader Cllr Andrew Jefferies, who is also the portfolio holder for environmental services, has made several personal public and online statements pledging to make things better - going back to his initial strong-worded admission of failure last October soon after taking over as leader.

That has led to management changes within the department.

Within the last 24 months, an interim 'Strategic Transformation Lead' was engaged in April 2020 but was discarded within six months. The council managerial merry-go-round then say an interim Director of Street Scene & Leisure appointed in January this year who left this month (August).

A former officer, Claire Demmel, rejoined the council as an interim Director of Public Realm on late June.

The council has acknowledged a number of other changes in its operational structure over recent months as it struggled to grasp the problems it faces.

In a statement relating to the continued failure of bins collection, the council says: "There have been a number of operational issues that have negatively impacted service delivery over the last two weeks which were mainly related to staffing and vehicle issues.

"Having looked at these in detail, we have made several changes which will see a normal service resume from Tuesday, 8 August with all waste streams being collected on the correctly scheduled day."

A council statement from Ms Demmel  says: "While the team are continually working to improve the service and will introduce improvements at timely intervals, on a larger scale you will be pleased to hear that we are currently carrying out a 'root and branch' review of the service which will be published is due course. 

"This review will ensure that the residents of Thurrock receive a waste service that is reliable and effective."

That prompted Homesteads ward councillor Cllr Gary Byrne, a long term critic of the council's bins policy, to say: "How many times will councillors be fed the line its staffing or vehicle issues ? 

"Not once in the many emails I have received on this matter that it's put down to poor project management."