Changes to bin collection routes in north east Fife have caused chaos and confusion, it has been claimed.
Fife Council has attracted criticism within affected communities after alterations brought in last week saw residents’ green bins for plastic and cans emptied two weeks in a row.
St Monans residents said some people had resorted to putting all four of their coloured bins at the kerbside last week in the hope one of them would be collected.
The local authority said changes came into effect last Monday and people were encouraged to go online for an up-to-date calendar.
Conservative councillor Linda Holt, representing the East Neuk and Landward ward, said the situation had inconvenienced many people.
“There’s been a lot of confusion over Fife Council’s reorganisation of bin collections in North East Fife, with some people (such as in St Monans) being asked to put out their green bins two weeks running, while others (such as parts of Anstruther) had no bin collection at all in February.
“Unsurprisingly they were puzzled and took to social media as they thought, not unreasonably, that there had been some mistake.
“Outages on the fifedirect website, the only place people can access information about bin collections, have not helped.
“All this just increases the excessive presence of bins – and the littering they cause when they get knocked over – on our streets, and requires many people to transport their waste to the recycling centres, whose restricted opening hours are another cause of inconvenience.
“In a week in which the Labour/SNP administration at Fife Council told residents they would have to pay 3% more council tax, such poor service is particularly hard to swallow.”
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Residents took to social media to vent their anger.
One said: “My nearly empty green bin was put out and has been emptied.
“My blue bin is full of stuff that previously went into the green one. It will be black bags out next week with the blue bin.”
Another said: “The cleansing wagon/bin lorry/refuse collector/midden machine has just bowled along Braehead in record time at 9.56am today…with hardly a bin out for emptying.
“Because who needed their plastic and cans (green bins) emptied AGAIN this week?!”
Fife Council stressed the only bins in Anstruther not serviced were the brown bins, as per the Fife-wide winter collection schedule.
Shaun Kenyon, waste operations team manager, said all information about pick-ups was available online.
He said: “Some households in East Fife will have their bins picked-up more frequently on a temporary basis.
“This is to bring them in line with the new waste collection routes they have been allocated to.
“Some people may have to wait slightly longer between pick -ups, on a temporary basis, during the transition period with the change to routes – this means that when their bin is picked up then we’ll pick up one bag/bundle of side waste (beside the bin) at the same time.
“All households affected, or potentially affected, by the changes had their bin tagged informing them of the change and to go online and get an updated calendar.
“There has also been extensive social media and media coverage informing residents about the change.
“Similar changes were rolled out across Dunfermline, across 60,000 households, last year, without any significant issues.”
