THE controversial new paid-for garden waste collection service in Derby has begun - and already there are complaints about missed collections.
About 20 homes in one street reported that their brown bins for the waste were missed on Tuesday – their first collection.
But the city council moved to put it right by collecting from the homes in Uttoxeter Road, Mickleover, the next day.
It is understood there were also bins missed in Meadowgrass Close, Littleover.
The paid-for service involves people being charged £40 a year for the first bin and £20 a year for any additional bins.
Councillor Ranjit Banwait, Labour's cabinet member responsible for the collections, previously said the scheme, aimed at saving £1.2m, was down "to the worst Government cuts in history".
But the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and UKIP have all said they would scrap the charge if they had control of the council following the May 22 council elections.
Gail Mellor, 56, of Uttoxeter Road, whose bin was not collected on time, said she believed the charge meant people were being penalised for having large gardens.
Mr Banwait had previously said people had three options: to home compost as "that's the best option for the environment", to sign up for the paid-for service; or to use the black bin.
Mrs Mellor said: "We already compost as much as we can. So we are faced with paying for the service.
"There are things you can't compost like trees that are too thick and certain weeds which grow in a compost heap."
In response to what had happened in Uttoxeter Road, a council statement said: "We are in the very early stages of delivering the garden waste collection service and the scheduled rounds have been completed today.
"We appreciate that there will be a period of adjustment while residents and the collection team get used to the new rounds and we will continue to closely monitor the new service as it is rolled out across the city."
Nobody was available to comment on how many households were now signed up to the service but the figure was 9,378 on March 25.
If the authority does not reach its sign-up target of 20,000, it will not achieve its £1.2 million savings target this financial year.
Have you paid for your bin to be collected? Or are you going to empty it yourself? Let us know in the comments below.
