Hundreds sign petition to reverse stop to brown bin collection

Thurrock Council said a formal decision on the future of brown bin collections had not been made

Hundreds of people have signed a petition to reverse a decision to stop brown bin collections in a council area.

Thurrock Council has stopped garden waste collections "until further notice", with some residents left with full bins.

A temporary collection service had been reinstalled in April, with garden waste being composted on alternate weeks.

Residents have been advised to throw food waste into green or grey bins instead of brown ones.

Thurrock Council announced in April that a "temporary plan" had been put in place to collect built-up garden waste.

A week later, it wrote in a Facebook post that it "will not collect any brown bins, so no garden waste collections will take place."

In recent days. the council confirmed that brown bins were no longer being collected and that residents had been warned through an e-newsletter and social media, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

A petition was started by Gary Byrne, an independent councillor for The Homesteads in Thurrock.

It demands an investigation into "why a highly-paid management team do not have the project management skills to deliver an effective refuse collection service."

It states that the decision means residents are paying more for "cuts in the basic needs of the community."

Thurrock Council advised residents to throw food waste into green or grey wheeled bins instead of brown bins

The council said: "There is no formal decision on the future of the brown bin service, any decision will be made through the council’s governance processes."

Many residents took to social media to voice their annoyance at the change, according to LDRS.

One resident said: "My brown bin which is full has been left in the street and will remain there until they empty it or remove it entirely."

Another said: "I’ve been putting my garden waste in my grey bin for weeks now and it has been getting collected the only issue is I’m going to need a second bin soon.

"I don’t understand why they just don’t take the brown bin and dump it at the same time in the same lorry as the grey/green bin."