WIRRAL Council will carry out an assessment which will give the public a say on Biffa's waste management performance.

At a council meeting on Monday (January 15) councillors from the Audit and Risk Management committee backed plans that would be see the consultation run alongside targeted work by auditors from this month ahead of the existing contract expiring in 2027.

Auditors will be looking at how the council manages the contract as well as Biffa's overall performance.  

Moreton West and Saughall Massie Councillor, Vida Wilson, welcomed the plan to give residents a say.

She said: “Last week, myself and Councillors, Colin Baldwin and Gary Bennett, were inundated with calls and emails from residents living in the Millhouse Lane area. Bins had been missed and hadn’t been collected until two or three days later.

“There wasn’t enough communication with residents so many people didn’t know what they should do – leave the bins out or bring them in until a future date. This contract with Biffa has been in place for 18 years now – these kind of issues, whether it’s volumes of waste being collected or the length of the routes, should have been sorted years ago.”

The council’s contract with Biffa, for all waste services provided, is worth £14.5m a year and is one of the highest value contracts the authority has signed off. 

In September, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that one round in Wallasey had seen 165 reports of missed collections in the previous 12 months. 

READ: Outrage after 165 bin collections missed in 12 Wallasey roads