Powys County Council has cited staff shortages after a Powys resident said he was facing a three-week gap between bin collections - days after the authority rubbished claims of such a delay.

Residents in the north of Powys did not have their recycling picked up over the end of last month meaning that some areas will have had a three-week wait for collection should they get their rubbish removed next week. 

Ian Smith, from Llangedywn, has not had his recycling picked up from his property since August 21, and is not set to have it picked up by the council until September 11 – meaning he has had to take his own rubbish to the tip.

“The recycling bins are full, said Ian. “I’ve already done a skip run but the nearest one is Oswestry – which is 12 miles there and 12 miles back.  If we stayed within Powys, it’s Welshpool which is even further.

READ MORE: Council chief rubbishes Powys bin collection claims

“Because we are rural, we have to take it to the bottom of our lane because they won’t come up, it’s two trips to take it back and forth.”

“We don’t currently get great deal out of our council tax because you need a 4x4 just to get down the lanes due to the potholes. The only thing we really get is the rubbish being collected and they’re not even doing that very well.”

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Mr Smith said that the council is no longer adding missed spots to other routes when rubbish isn’t picked up meaning the situations are being left meaning they attract animal

“It used to be if your bins got missed, you’d get tagged to another route and pick it up on a different day but now there doesn’t seem to be that effort, it’s just 'no you’ll just have to wait' – that’s what gets on my nerves,” said Ian.

“Rats and things could get in your bins. We have to store it outside, animals get in it and pull it all apart and then you have to put it all back in.

“I know this is a ‘first world problem’ and these things can happen, but they just don’t seem to care.”

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Powys County Council said the issue with collections stems from staff shortages in the department.

Councillor Jackie Charlton, cabinet member for a Greener Powys, said: “We collect recycling and waste from 60,000 households across Powys and much of that is across some of the most rural communities in the UK.

“Residents should not have to wait more than two weeks for a collection of recycling. As has been recently reported there have been issues with staffing in the north of the county which means that some rounds have had to be rolled on a week.

“Occasionally this does mean that on the catchup week, the lorry fills up quickly resulting in the round having to be completed the following day. Anything beyond this is likely to be an individual issue which may come about for a number of reasons and we do seek to address these as quickly as possible.

“If an individual property is missed we do try to return before the next collection date. However, due to the size and sparsity of the county, this can involve travelling considerable distances and it is not as simple as adding it to a neighbouring collection on another day as they are maximised to collect the material on that particular collection run in terms of capacity on the vehicles.”