'Explosion' of missed waste collections in Milton Keynes slammed by Conservatives

More than 25 estates in Milton Keynes have experienced overruns of food and green waste collections in the past two weeks, councillors have revealed.

City Conservatives say there has been an "explosion" in missed collections just three weeks after the Labour/Lib Dem Milton Keynes Council leadership insisted things were improving.

But MK Council’s own performance indicators on waste collection are currently rated as inadequate with the Council failing to meet any of its targets for waste collection this year, say the Tories.

And they predict the overruns over the last week could prove to make things much worse.

Local Tory councillors have repeatedly called on the council to prepare a winter plan to pre-empt and mitigate potential waste collection disruption. They have also called for a more robust approach in challenging the waste operator Serco.

Emails were sent out to dozens of ward councillors this week stating: “Serco unfortunately will not complete food and garden waste (green bin) collections in the areas below, a loss of operational staff due to local LGV shortages and an Increase in Covid cases has had an impact in today’s service…”

Cllr Alex Walker, leader of the Conservative Group, said: “The council has ignored warnings and now residents will see their services disrupted for weeks, if not months.

"Residents are rightly frustrated that overruns are now occurring on a daily basis.

"The Council should have developed a winter plan weeks ago and they could have been prepared. The issues of Covid and LGV shortages are not new, they have been apparent for months now.

“Rather than shifting responsibility and telling the public we should be grateful for the current level of service is lazy. The council needs to do better.”