TOWN Hall chiefs have pledged to get bin collections back on track “within weeks”.

Speaking at The Bolton News’ special bins meeting, council bosses pleaded for patience from residents and vowed to take on board complaints in a bid to improve the faltering service.

The Bolton News called the meeting in response to the number of complaints we have received from disgruntled residents since new bin rounds were introduced on September 21.

Thousands of homes have been left without uncollected rubbish in the last six weeks.

A panel made up of council leader Cllr Cliff Morris, Executive member for cleaner, greener, safer Cllr Sufrana Bashir-Ismail, the council’s director of environmental services Malcolm Cox and chief executive Sean Harriss faced a tough grilling from the audience which included several binmen.

In an opening presentation, Mr Cox described the changes to the bin rounds, which now have all the borough’s crews concentrating on a different zone on any particular day. It is the biggest change to the service since the late 1980s.

He said service had to be changed to bring it up to date, but also to save potentially millions of pounds.

The council makes around 13 million collections per year and says there is now a bigger demand for recycling than ever before, with 31 per cent of the borough’s waste recycled.

When asked by a binman why a test round had not been carried out before the changes were implemented, Mr Cox said that the modernisation was required across the whole borough. He pointed out that bin crews had been involved in a “polishing” process to iron out suspected difficulties before the system went live.

He added: “We are going to continue working with the crews to tweak things and there will be areas to look at again.”

Other binmen said the increased workloads were making their jobs impossible and one, Tony Cowell, who has worked on the bins for more than 25 years, even challenged the panel to do his typical day.

He said: “If any of the panel can complete the work I have to do then I will give a day’s wage to charity. My workload has increased by 40 per cent but, from next year, my wage will be cut by £130 per month (due to the council’s pay and grading review).”

Mr Harriss said: “I don’t think anyone within the council thought that the change was going to be easy to implement but we have to move with the times and try and make a saving and try and make improvements. We haven’t got everything right but no one has said we have.”

Resident Mr Michael Dodds asked the panel how much the changes were costing.

Mr Harriss said: “We are talking about savings of £360,000 to £400,000 per year which over 10 years is up to £4 million. “These savings are over the long term and cannot be expected to be realised within the first week, month or even year.”

Mr Cox revealed that while bin wagons were being filled up at supermarket petrol stations, the price compared to storing tanks of fuel at the depots was similar.

He said: “The main advantage is that you can fill up in the area where you are working.”

Cllr Bashir-Ismail, who was heckled after saying she felt the meeting was turning political, said: “Change is difficult if you have worked on the same streets for 20 years but it is just like someone who has worked for a long time on a check-out at Morrisons and then is suddenly moved.”

Responding to criticism about lack of consultation, Cllr Morris revealed that Mr Cox would be giving a short presentation at future area forum meetings across the borough.

Local solicitor Alan Walsh, who chaired the meeting, was forced to step in several times as anger at the ongoing situation threatened to spill over.

Irate resident Mr Bashir stood up and pointed towards the panel as he revealed that it took 16 phone calls to the council and one to his local councillor before his bin was emptied.

Julie Hilling, Labour’s candidate in Bolton West at the next General Election, asked if a better reporting system could be implemented.

Mr Cox replied: “We have spoken to the staff in the contact centre and they have dedicated teams on the environmental services desk which gets fed specific information as it happens so they can relay that to the public.” He added that the number of complaints being received by the council had fallen over the last couple of weeks and that the aim was to continue reducing the number of missed collections as workers became more used to the system and problems were ironed out.

Mr Harriss apologised to residents who were having problems and revealed that around three to five per cent of homes were affected.

But he added: “No one is complacent about that and any missed bin is a missed bin too many and any week that this continues is a week too long.” Speaking after the meeting, Mr Harriss described the meeting as “useful and constructive”. He added: “We are committed to getting this right but we do appeal for people to be patient while we try to implement the changes.”

andrew.greaves@the boltonnews.co.uk