Council's waste collectors issued with notice of improvement after 'unacceptable delays' in Milton Keynes

They have issued a notice of improvement to ensure contractors Serco sticks to the schedule.

Serco bosses have apologised and already the number of waste collection delays has fallen sharply, say officers.

An MK Council spokesman said: "The unacceptable level of waste collection delays was due to the council’s waste partner Serco experiencing high levels of vehicle breakdowns and other operational issues. In the week commencing 20 July 6.4 per cent of all collections were affected."

He added: "Following rapid council escalation to senior Serco management, the week commencing July 27 had no delays on the food and garden waste service but did have delays on residual and recycling (black sack)."

This affected 1.8 per cent of collections, while the week beginning August 3 had 0.06 per cent of delays in food and garden waste only.

The contractual notice of improvement will ensure Serco puts plans in place to run their operations sustainably to 2023.

Cllr Emily Darlington, Cabinet member for the public realm said, “While we do appreciate the pandemic has complicated some matters for suppliers, these delays were unacceptable for MK residents. There are some straightforward things we want Serco to put in place now to make sure we’re not in this position again.”

She added: “Serco’s senior management have assured us that they’re on the case and we are now seeing collections getting back on track. The notice we’ve issued puts some recent conversations on a formal footing and will help us monitor how they’re getting on. Our priority is to maintain a working weekly collection service as we know this is important to local people.”

Mark Sturgeon, Serco Senior Contract Manager said, “I would like to apologise to the residents whose collections were delayed and reassure you we are working with Milton Keynes Council to make the necessary improvements to service."