People who need extra help with their rubbish and recycling bins are not receiving the support they need, according to a Conservative councillor.
Councillor Alistair McNair, the leader of the Conservative group on Brighton and Hove City Council, was concerned to find no reference to assisted collections in a report to the council’s cabinet.
They are available for people who cannot move their bins or recycling boxes themselves.
Councillor McNair, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury, has received several reports of missed assisted collections in his area.
He said: “They are quite hit and miss and I’m wondering why this continues to be the case.
“It’s a mark of the quality of the individual customer service and it’s a mark of how well drivers know their rounds. It’s probably one of the first things that suffers when you’ve got temporary staff.
“People with assisted collections need them. Other people might take their rubbish to the tip – not that they should have to – but they can. People with assisted collections can’t.”
Labour councillor Tim Rowkins, the council’s cabinet member for net zero and environmental services, said: “As a result of the recent disruption to collections, some assisted collections have unfortunately been missed.
“Clearly, residents who have assisted collections are particularly impacted and I want to extend our apologies to those affected.
“There is a great deal of work going on to make fundamental and lasting improvements to the service and some of these take some time.
“Where collections are missed, we aim to return and collect them within 48 hours, including our assisted collections, although this isn’t always possible.
“At the moment, our crews are issued with details of assisted collections in their paper sheets each morning.
“We’ll soon have an in-cab system which will help us provide a better service by identifying assisted collections more clearly as the round progresses.
“It will also provide us with real-time information, including if an assisted bin has been missed, so we can schedule an alternative collection much quicker.”
The cabinet is due to discuss Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service, at Hove Town Hall on Thursday (15 May). The meeting is scheduled to start at 2pm and to be webcast.
The councils phone lines have not been working consistently for the last few weeks either, so for those digitally excluded it’s impossible to get hold of the council if a problem comes up.