NEARLY 200 bins were missing during collections in 12 roads in Wirral during the last year.

Data requested by local councillors, Ian Lewis and Lesley Rennie, followed months of complaints from people living between Seaview Road and Rolleston Drive in Wallasey.

The missed collections, of green and grey bins, between July 2022 and June 2023, were reported by residents to the Wirral Council.

The roads affected are Princesway, Oldfield Road, Tilston Road, Broxton Road, Shelton Road, Treforris Road, Gerard Avenue, Glebe Road, Thornton Road, Allerton Road, Meddowcroft Road and Hamlet Road.

Councillor Ian Lewis told the Globe: “166 reports in a year should surely have triggered an investigation by the council and action by Biffa. Instead, the problem continues.

“This is, above all, a failure to manage and deliver the contract. The residents are paying for a service that, too often, is hit-and-miss. Yes, these are narrow roads but there are lots of narrow roads around Wallasey and they don’t seem to have the same problems.

“Two years ago, we suggested Biffa deploy their narrower bin wagons if the width of the roads was an issue. Our investigations confirm that the council has been aware of this problem but has so far, been unable to sort it.”

Both councillors are now calling for the management of the contract to be reviewed by the Council’s Audit & Risk Management Committee.

Councillor Rennie added: “It seems for Wirral Council the hardest word is ‘sorry’. Instead, taxpayers have been given waffle.

“The council’s own auditor has raised concerns about poor contract management across the council.

“Residents in parts of Wallasey are the ones who are paying the price for whatever the problems are within the management of this contract.”

“Since April, Wirral Council has paid Biffa more than £4.3 million for waste services. You’d think with that size of contract, emptying bins in a dozen roads in Wallasey wouldn’t be that difficult.”

A Wirral Council spokesperson said: “These issues have been investigated and the biggest contributing factor to missed bin collections in these areas is access. These are narrow roads where vehicles are often double-parked, parked on bends or corners, or lead into cul-de-sacs and it is sometimes impossible for the large collection vehicles to safely manoeuvre around.

“However, if a collection isn’t possible on the scheduled day due to the vehicle not being able to access all properties, crews do return in the narrow access vehicle to complete the collection on the next available day. Unfortunately, there are only two narrow-access vehicles in Biffa’s fleet and these are already deployed in other areas that experience similar issues on the scheduled collection day for these streets (Friday).

“This is one of the reasons we are currently working with Biffa to re-design some of the bin collection routes so that collections will better reflect the changes we have seen across Wirral in the last few years and provide a more resilient and efficient household waste collection service.”