Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) and the contractors they employ to collect bins have both apologised for recent failures.

Residents in the Mole Valley area voiced their concerns recently after several weeks went by with bins being left uncollected for too long.

The district council employ private contractors Amey for their waste collection services.

MVDC responded to the disruption on Thursday (May 31).

In a statement Councillor Claire Malcomson (Liberal Democrat), Cabinet Member for Environment on MVDC apologised to the residents who had been inconvenienced.

Cllr Malcomson said: "Our waste contractors Amey have been working for us since August 2018. In recent weeks the level of service they provide has fallen well below the standards we require.

"We are taking these performance issues very seriously and would like to apologise to all the residents in the district who have experienced issues over a number of weeks.

She also revealed that the council were working with the "most senior" levels of management at Amey to resolve the issue.

"We are now discussing resolutions with the most senior levels at Amey to ensure we return to collections for everyone in the district on the correct day.

"Please be assured that we will be working with them to resolve these issues as soon as possible," Cllr Malcomson added.

On Monday (June 3), the Surrey Comet reached out to Amey to inquire why there had been such delays and disruption for Mole Valley residents as a result of the bin collection problems.

In response, a spokesperson offered an apology on behalf of the company and cited several issues that likely impacted their services.

The Amey Spokesperson said: "We have experienced a number of operational issues recently, including vehicle breakdowns, staffing shortages and an increase in waste tonnages from last year. This has affected our bin collections in Mole Valley.

"We would like to apologise to residents for the inconvenience caused.

"These issues have meant a small proportion of collections (around 1 per cent) have seen a delay of up to one day later than the normal collection day."

The contractor's spokesperson added that as of last Friday (May 31) all the backlogged work had been completed and that the company continued to investigate the issue with MVDC.

"Our teams have been working hard to bring the service back up to date. As of Friday 31 May, all backlogged work has been completed and we have deployed additional resources to ensure stability in the service going forward.

"We are also working in collaboration with Mole Valley District Council to examine these issues. Our aim is always to provide the best possible service to the community," Amey's spokesperson said.

For a video statement from Cllr Malcomson about the bin collection problems, go to: https://www.facebook.com/molevalleydc/videos/316888805901047/

For information on bin collection in the district, see: https://www.molevalley.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=16875