NEARLY 3,000 people are still calling Bolton Council’s call centre each week to complain about missed bin collections.

Despite that, town hall chiefs say the number of missed collections has gone down — but admit that there is still plenty of work to be done and have appealed for patience.

The Bolton News and the council have been inundated with complaints since new bin rounds were introduced on September 21, with thousands of homes left with uncollected rubbish for up to five weeks in some cases.

At the time of The Bolton News’ bins public meeting on November 2, around five per cent of the borough’s bins were being missed.

Now, council bosses say that figure is nearer three per cent and, since September 28, the number of calls to the environmental services call centre has fallen from 6,000 at its peak to under half that figure.

Malcolm Cox, the council’s director of environmental services, said: “We have seen an improvement and we have started to speak to the drivers again to find out what is working and what isn’t.

“This is an ongoing process but the silly anomalies, such as where we had two collections on different days for the same street have been changed already.”

With Christmas fast approaching, the council is asking bin men to volunteer for extra shifts, with collections taking place on December 27 and January 2 for those residents whose bins should have been collected on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day respectively.

But with extra waste expected over the festive period, Mr Cox is urging residents to recycle and not to pile excess rubbish at the side of their grey bins.

He said: “If people experienced a missed collection then we want them to take the bin back out and put it out again the following week. If that person is recycling then we do not think there will be excess waste.

“Our crews will only collect waste in bags outside the bins if it is the result of the property being missed over a longer period of time. Most of the extra waste is things like wrapping paper which can be recycled.”

Mr Cox also revealed that complaints passed to him by residents at the bins meeting organised by The Bolton News have now been dealt with and will continue to be monitored alongside other reports.