Maidstone Greens have accused the Conservatives of being “missing in action” over massive failure in bin collections following the change of provider from Biffa to SUEZ. The Greens have singled out Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, Conservative Cllr Patrik Garten, as being absent from communications to residents. Nearly a third of bin collections were missed or late last week leaving households very angry with some not having waste collected for the past three weeks.
Green Cllr Stuart Jeffery, “The change over to SUEZ has been a nightmare, with thousands of bin collections missed or late across the Borough. At one point 30% of collections were missed or late: nearly one in three. Bins have been full to overflowing and so waste is being spread about by various animals.
“Council officers are working hard to make sure as much as collected as possible and most councillors are fielding complaint after complaint but Cllr Garten, the cabinet member responsible, seems to have gone into hiding since he told us that ‘things are in hand’ a couple of weeks ago. There has been no public statement from the Conservative leader of the Council either.
“This debacle sits with Cllr Garten and he needs to take responsibility for getting it sorted. Yet he seems to be missing in action.”
