VILLAGERS living in Guilsfield near Welshpool have had to wait a week for their recycling to be collected.

And some feel that should be compensated for the lack of service from Powys County Council.

Usually recycling in Guilsfield is collected on a Tuesday.

But for a number of reasons the collection on Tuesday, June 7, was missed, as was the case in several  areas in and around Welshpool who also experienced problems.

But while villagers had been told that recycling would be picked up on the Wednesday, (June 8) and then daily up to and over the weekend, the refuse collectors did not appear until Tuesday morning, June 14.

A whole week late.

By this time, recycling boxes were overflowing with cardboard, glass, plastic, and tin which had been left on the street for a week.

Due to the volume of recycling being picked up, the  collection lorry had to make extra journeys to and from its depot.

When speaking to villagers on Tuesday recycling collectors said that they were chronically understaffed and last week’s problems had been down to staff being on holiday or absent due to illness.

Guilsfield county councillor, Ian Harrison said that due to “lots of concerns” from residents he had contacted Cllr Jackie Charlton, the cabinet member for a Greener Powys whose brief includes waste and recycling.

County Times: Uncollected recycling in Guilsfield.Uncollected recycling in Guilsfield.

He also spoke to the recycling depot and had been “assured” that the recycling collection would happen on Wednesday (June 8) which “didn’t happen”.

Cllr Harrison believed that the communication of the issues on their website and Powys Recycling Facebook page has been “inconsistent at best.”

Cllr Harrison said: “Normally the recycling team are on time and very efficient, so I hope this service failure is an anomaly.

“If this fall in service standards were to continue then I certainly believe residents should challenge service value for money.

“People are quite rightly very frustrated at this service failure.”

A spokesman for Powys County Council said:  “The waste and recycling service have recently experienced some staffing issues in the north of the county.

“In places, this has resulted in some delayed collections.

“Residents are advised to leave their recycling boxes out as the crews are working hard to catch up on all collections.”