An investigation has been launched after a blunder over rubbish bin collection calendars caused confusion in north east Fife.
Thousands of Liberal Democrat campaign leaflets have been sent out to residents giving details of kerbside recycling dates.
The move was intended to compensate for Fife Council’s decision to stop providing printed calendars to cut costs last autumn.
However, the goodwill gesture appears to have backfired after it emerged that a number of people received the wrong calendar – leading to missed collections and householders logging missed bin pick-ups with Fife Council.
A spokesperson for Willie Rennie MSP’s campaign office said the wrong information had been sent out to a “small” number of properties, although the local authority said it was working hard to find out the true scale of the problem.
Sandy Anderson, waste operations co-ordinator with Fife Council’s environment and building services, has written to all Fife councillors to highlight the issue.
“Our contact centre and local offices are being made aware and I am now making all of the elected members aware as this has been done from outwith our service and we do not know the actual scale of the problem,” he said.
“Our service will take a decision on what will be done with the missed collections once we have assessed how many households this has affected.”
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats confirmed that incorrect information had gone out to the public in some cases but defended the principle behind the move.
“Fife Council decided to stop providing printed bin collection calendars at the end of September 2017 as a financial saving,” the spokesperson continued.
“The Lib Dems decided to send calendars out to help people, especially those who don’t have access to the internet.
“Tens of thousands have gone out.
“Wrong information was issued to a small number of properties.
“As soon as we became aware of this we provided the right information and sent a note of apology to those people.”
The switch to online-only bin calendars last September was expected to save Fife Council more than £20,000 a year.
At the time, councillor Ross Vettraino, convener for the environment, protective services and community safety committee, said: “Fife Council have a very good reputation for recycling in Fife, and are reducing our impact on the environment and saving precious resources by asking people, wherever possible, to access their bin calendar online.”
Fifers can visit www.fifedirect.org.uk/bincalendar and sign-up for email alerts by entering their postcode and email address.
Anyone who does not have access to a computer, tablet or smartphone can visit their local library where calendars can be printed off at a cost of 25p each.
Householders needing a bin calendar in an alternative format, such as braille, can continue to receive these by calling the council’s recycling helpline on 03451 55 00 22.
