Flintshire garden waste scheme branded a shambles by residents

Flintshire ‘s garden waste collection scheme has been branded a shambles by residents who have been left waiting weeks for their brown bins to be emptied.

Friends Glenys Davies, 83, of Mold and 91-year-old Wylma Parker of Mynydd Isa say their bins have been repeatedly missed by the brown bin collection and they have been made to wait up to two months to have them sorted out.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Glenys. “We pay extra for this service and the council repeatedly fail to deliver it.

“They missed my last collection before Christmas in December and do you know how long it took them to send someone out to empty my bins? Two months. It was February before my bin was emptied and they complained about the smell!

“Mine have just been missed again and I don’t know when they will be collected.

“When you contact the council to complain, you are told that it will be sorted out.

“Publicly they keep saying how wonderfully the waste collections are going. I have no problem with the new three-weekly black bin collections or the recycling, that is all running smoothly for me. But the brown bins are a shambles.

“My son lives in Broughton and he has had the same problems.”

Wylma has also been having problems since garden waste collections restarted for 2025.

The Mynydd Isa resident’s first brown bin collection was due to take place on March 10 but was missed. After complaining to the council it was eventually collected on March 24.

Her scheduled collection on May 12 was also then missed and has still not been collected despite numerous complaints made to the council.

“It makes no sense because we know they have a list of the addresses of who has paid,” she said. “They come past my house and the bin is out for collection but they ignore it.

“I recently had a hip operation so I’m not quick enough to get the the door and shout to them but I shouldn’t have to. I’ve called the council a number of times about this but to no avail. When I asked to be put through to the manager I was told that was not allowed.

“The wagon even stopped outside my gate on Monday (June 9), and failed to collect my waste. It is not acceptable.”

Flintshire County Council said that the majority of brown bins have been collected on time.

Chief officer for Streetscene and Transportation, Katie Wilby, said: “We recognise that the garden waste subscription service is a popular and valued service for residents.

“We are aware that, on occasion, missed collections can occur, and we regret any inconvenience that this may cause to residents. While the vast majority of brown bin collections for garden waste are completed as scheduled, we acknowledge that there have been isolated instances where delays have occurred.

“These can be due to a variety of factors, and we continue to review and respond to service issues as they arise.

“We remain committed to delivering a reliable service and we are taking steps to monitor performance and address any concerns raised by residents. Our teams work hard to maintain high service standards and ensure that any reported issues are resolved as promptly as possible.

“We encourage any resident who experiences a missed collection to report it through the appropriate channels so that it can be logged and investigated accordingly.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter