Angry householders in Bryn and Ashton have faced long delays in having their rubbish collected.
Staff eventually arrived five days late – by which time many of the bins were full to bursting.

Independent councillor Gary Wilkes claims his phonelines have been buzzing with complaints from angry families wondering about the delays.

But he was amazed by the explanation from bin collection chiefs. They say out-of-town agency binmen being employed to cover for a shortage of permanent council staff are having trouble finding their way around the borough.

Vital minutes are being wasted with a wrong turning here or there and the accumulative effect means that they are running out of time to complete their rounds.

Mysterious corners of the area which have eluded them include Adamson Street, Rigby Street, parts of Old Road, parts of Wigan Road, parts of Woodedge estate, parts of Landgate estate, Holmewood Close and Sefton Road.

But Coun Wilkes believes that Bryn is no more difficult to navigate around than any other part of the North West.

He says that the agency binmen need a better briefing before setting off on their rounds.
In a letter to Coun Wilkes, Waste Collection Manager Andy Burton
apologised to householders for problems in the waste collection service.

He pledged that things were now "back to normal" and delays shouldn't happen again.

He said: "Recent disruption in the collection service around Ashton and Bryn has been a result of the service relying on agency staff who have been covering the holiday and sickness leave of our own operational staff.

"The agency staff do not have the local knowledge which our own staff have which leads to delays in collections.

"Management have now acted on this problem and we are now operating with a full compliment of in-house HGV drivers. By the end of May we will have a full compliment of in-house bin loaders.Having said that Ashton and Bryn collections are now covered with a full compliment of in-house operational staff and I'm pleased to inform you that the service is now back to normal with improved measures and monitoring systems to ensure that the residents receive the service they expect from their Waste Collection Service.

He said: "We have gone from a great service to an unreliable service and I have been asking questions why.

"The underlying issue is that the council have handed their own bin men a slap in the face because they have lost their bonus so they have been leaving to go to the private waste contractors and who can blame them because I'm sure I would do the same in their position.
"The Metro have got to fill the gap in some way and they have been employing agency staff who don't know the patch.

"They are alright on the main roads and they don't know the nook and cranny and cul-de-sacs which is why they are being missed out. They are also taking longer because they don't know the patch like the council's own binmen.

"I can't believe in this day age, when we have sat nav, or good old A to Zs, that the agency staff are getting lost in Bryn and Ashton because they are hardly trying to find their way through the centre of London are they?
"It strikes me that they are not doing their homework and they should be."

A spokesman for Wigan Council said: "There has been a problem recently with one part of Ashton where the round is quite complicated and temporary staff who have been covering for sickness have been unfamiliar with some of the fine detail.
"Any missed bins deserve an apology and an assurance that we are working to put things right.

"We go straight back out again and empty the missed bins and we're also tackling the problem long term to ensure that these problems don't reoccur.

"But it does need to be said that most residents borough wide appreciate the bin service and the fact that we still have weekly collections in Wigan.

"We have a first class team of binmen who are doing a good job, and while we're sorry whenever there's a lapse from the high standards we set, this complaint is not representative of the situation across the borough."