THURROCK Council has confirmed that on their first day back after the Christmas break its waste collection crews missed out a number of streets.

It's another embarrassment for a service blundering from problem to problem on the back of repeatedly failed promises that things will get better.

The council said its teams will make up the missed collections in Victoria Road, Elle Close, Bell Reeves Close, Karen Close and Gentry Close in Stanford-le-Hope today (Thursday, 29 December) but it has given no explanation why the bins were missed.

All collections were running a day behind because of the bank holidays so it is possible the backlog will filter down into next week as well.

However, expectations that the appointment of a new £100,000 a year director to the council may not be the panacea it seemed to get bin collections back on track.

The as yet-unnamed interim director of street scene and leisure appears not being tasked with the existing green and blue bin delays, but to concentrate on meeting government recycling and waste targets when she starts her job on Monday, 9 January.

The council has confirmed today that the new director's role is not related to the day-to-day service problems, nor the failed 'refresh of services' promised by the council's environment portfolio holder in October.

Cllr Andrew Jefferies delayed changes to the waste service to later next year.

It appears she is being tasked with implementing weekly food waste collections and driving up recycling. The collection of brown bins, which are for garden waste are currently suspended. The length of her 'interim' appointment has also not been determined, but the changes to servcie are not expected to come on stream until at least September 2023.

At the time the planned changes were suspended earlier this year, Nub News had reported the council was looking introducing a food caddy system to deal with kitchen waste.

Cllr Jefferies has declined Nub News invitations to comment on the new appointment and the planned changes, as has council leader Cllr Mark Coxshall who announced the new role without previous public reference to councillors or committees earlier in December.

In October, in a frank and detailed set of responses to councillors' questions, Cllr Jefferies conceded there had been major problems in the waste department - which is managed by Julie Rogers whose salary package is in excess of £130,000 - saying it had had a shocking record of leadership and had not valued its front line workers enough.

Ms Rogers is the director of public realm and draws on the support of a number of assistant directors with responsibilites within her portfolio, all taking home salaries in excess of £90,000.

One of those is the assistant director - street scene and leisure - who now appears to have a new, as yet unnamed boss, though Cllr Coxshall did say her first name was Anita.

Despite that phalanx of highly paid officers, as householders in Stanford can readily testify, the year has still ended with the simple job of emptying two out of three bins unmanageable.