Council forced to apologise over bin collection mess up

Council urge 60,000 Fife households to check their new bin rota collection days after "data glitch".

Council bosses have blamed a “data glitch” for the mistakes to the new online collection calendars and are now urging residents to recheck the council website.

Thousands of residents in towns and communities across west Fife last week had their household bins tagged informing them of scheduled changes to both the bin collection days and changes in the types of household waste the public can now recycle and in which bins it must go in.

Your bin collection services are about to change - here's what you need to know

The computer foul up comes just two weeks before the changes are due to rolled out in the first phase of changes to be introduced across Fife by spring 2019.

Anyone who viewed or downloaded their online calendar between August 13-22 now needs to review their bin pick-up dates.

Shaun Kenyon, Fife Council’s Waste Operations manager said: “Due to a data error, some calendars were not correctly updated when we started tagging landfill bins.

“I fully apologise to all residents affected for any convenience caused, and I am asking people in the west of Fife to please re-check their bin calendar if they downloaded it between August 13 and 22 last week.

“I would also like to reassure residents that the calenders are now correct, and that we are on-track for the changes to bin pick-ups to start on September 17.”

Fife Council said it had received some calls and enquires via social media from residents about their bin calendar, and steps had been taken to make the necessary corrections as quickly as possible.

As part of a £20,000 cost cutting measure, the council no longer issue printed bin rotas to residents, instead directing the public to access the information online.

Residents can see how the changes by simply going to the council website and entering their postcode.

To help with the transition to the new bin collection routes in west Fife, there will be no special uplift collections for bulky household items, including fridges, freezers and furniture in west Fife during the weeks of September 17 and 24.

Households will be able to book a special uplift from week commencing October 1.