Milton Keynes Council are suspending all garden and food waste collections for the remainder of this week, with the waste collection resources being moved into clearing the remaining backlog of rubbish.
In a statement to MKFM, Milton Keynes Council have blamed the situation on "a series of failures by the contractor" and have said that "this level of service [from Serco] is not acceptable."
The new agreed plan will include extra bin men and vehicles out in the city, with residents asked to continue to put their regular bins out in accordance with the revised Christmas and New Year collection schedule.
However, residents have now been asked not to put out any garden or food waste tomorrow or on Saturday.
Officials have said that three collection rounds are now back on schedule, with ten rounds running up to one day behind and five rounds up to two days behind.
Leader of Milton Keynes Council, Cllr Peter Marland said: "I apologise unreservedly to everyone in MK still waiting for their rubbish to be collected, which is around 15,000 properties."
"Thank you for your continued patience as we try to sort this out. Our advice is unchanged – please put your waste out as per the revised Christmas and New Year schedule and we’ll collect it as soon as possible. A number of rounds are still on schedule, while other rounds are behind."
"Our aim is to collect from any individual streets missed on the next day but I’m aware some people have been waiting a lot longer and I’m very sorry for this."
"We’re taking action with our contractor SERCO, working closely with them to put things right as fast as possible. Extra staff and vehicles have already been brought in to get us back on track over the next week at which point all outstanding waste should be collected. Food and garden waste collections will be suspended on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 January so teams and waste lorries can be redeployed. Please don’t put out food and garden waste for collection on those days."
"Several factors came together to cause this disruption but regardless of the reasons it is unacceptable. We’re one of the few local councils that still runs weekly waste collections because we know it’s important to you. We’re seeking SERCO’s assurance that it won’t happen again and we’ve formally written to them in this regard."
Serco have now deployed an additional ten trucks in addition to the existing eighteen refuge trucks in operation.
Residents have reacted with anger, with many taking to social media and threatening to dump their rubbish at the Council's offices.
The Council say that food and garden waste collections will re-commence according to the Christmas/New Year collection timetable on Monday.
