TOWN Hall chiefs have said employees are “working tirelessly to get bin collections back on track after being told by the Government to get their act together.

Communities minister Bob Neill has written to all council leaders to tell them that taxpayers regard regular bin collection as “one of the most basic services” they provide and will not accept it being allowed to slide over holiday periods.

The Government’s letter came as some residents in Bolton complained that they had not received a collection for the past four weeks.

Snow and icy conditions disrupted collections over the Christmas and New Year period and despite Bolton Council setting up special emergency waste drop-off points around the borough, a backlog still exists.

Tony Backhouse, treasurer of the Claypool Residents Association, said some bins in the area had not been collected since December 13.

He said: “I think the Government’s approach to write to the councils is the right thing to do. To us it looks like the rubbish is being collected from selected areas because even if it is picked up from the periphery, there is still a build up of bags inside the estate.

“The problem we have as well is that when they are made away of the problem, it is the week after before anything is done.”

In his letter to council chiefs, Mr Neill wrote: “It is clear that there is widespread public concern at the extent of the disruption to collections. A regular bin collection is one of the most basic services council taxpayers pay for.

“Yet many families, who have already seen council tax more than double in the last 13 years, have had to wait for over a month for their waste to be collected.”

Since bin collections restarted last week, extra staff has been placed on the rounds and the council has said that up to three extra bags of rubbish will be collected from properties whose collections have been missed.