Over 11,000 rubbish collection incidents were tallied last year according to new research, with long delays causing residents extreme frustration.
Abiona Boja reports.
Abiona Boja reports.
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00:00Ever wondered just how clean your streets are? Well, a Freedom of Information request by KMTV
00:05has revealed the best and worst councils for missed bin collections across Kent and Medway.
00:11Topping the list with the most missed collections is Swale Borough Council,
00:15with over 11,000 bins missed in the last year alone.
00:19Problems first began in March 2024 when private contractor Suez took over waste management
00:26but rubbish slowly started piling up as bins were left unemptied for weeks at a time,
00:32leading to what residents described as a catastrophe.
00:56So you can imagine like a household family and then you have to wait two weeks for your
01:03bins to be collected and by the next day you've already got a full black bag so
01:07yeah it's been quite annoying. We're really busy like we've got a little baby and we've said that
01:14we have to go out of our own way which is inconvenient enough to get rid of them because
01:19they won't do their job properly so... What is a real shame, I'll be completely
01:22real with you about this country having been abroad so many times and seen different environments
01:26different ways of living and stuff is how dirty this country can get and it's so frustrating
01:31because you know you've got to think when people come in and visit on holiday and stuff like that
01:35from other countries they must look around and think where am I do you know what I mean it'd
01:37be so nice to have a much fresher cleaner country and sometimes they don't pick them up if they've
01:42got stuff in there that shouldn't be in there which is a bit frustrating it could be the smallest
01:45thing sometimes you know what I mean. Suez later apologised and in January of this year Swale
01:51Borough Council launched a full review to get services back on track. A spokesperson for Swale
01:56Borough Council said whilst delays were frustrating lessons have been learned and services were now
02:03close to pre-changeover levels. Meanwhile in Sevenoaks residents appear to live on the cleanest
02:09streets with just over a thousand missed bin collections in 2024. The difference? They don't use
02:15private contractors. Sevenoaks District Council said their in-house teams take pride in delivering
02:21a top tier service with over 90% of residents reporting that they were happy with their
02:26collections. Only time will tell if Swale's improvements will hold but for now residents
02:32are hoping for a cleaner more reliable service. Abiona Boyer for KMTV