Frustrations over a lack of litter bin collections in Llanidloes have been raised following complaints made by residents - as Powys County Council said staffing levels were to blame.

Llanidloes Mayor Cllr Jamie Jones said there was an “ongoing issue” of overflowing public use bins in areas such as Hafren Terrace, which he described as a “health and safety matter”.

The town council was asked at a recent meeting how it could improve the situation for local people caused by the lack of bin emptying.

However, the town council acknowledged that complaints to Powys County Council (PCC) had improved recently.

Powys County Councillor for Llanidloes Gareth Morgan also called for more containers to be installed at the Gro car park in the town following “continuous problems” with overflowing bins.

OTHER NEWS:

“There are only two containers there. We need at least one further container for cardboard. I’ve had regular excuses from a broken-down lorry to someone’s sick.

"If we had an extra-large container to take on recycling waste that takes place there would be a great help.”

Councillor Alan Bennett told the council that he had asked PCC officers for another recycling container for the Gro. Councillors raised that Newtown already has six in Back Lane car park alone and Rhayader, which has around 300 fewer residents, has the same number of containers as Llanidloes.

Get in touch

Share your views on this story by sending a letter to the editor. To get in touch email news@countytimes.co.uk, or fill in the form on this section of our website.

“[A council officer] said it was impossible, but he didn’t say why,” Cllr Bennett said. “He didn’t want to play ball with that one. I got nowhere.”

Councillor Gareth Morgan said: “If they haven’t got one, then they will have to buy one. It’s obvious. If it was run by a private enterprise that would not be a problem.

“There is a lot of discontent in the community. So many visitors in the town park there and that’s the impression they get of the area.”

A Powys County Council spokesperson said: “The emptying of litter bins has been affected by staffing levels in the same way as the kerbside collections over the summer and we have had to stretch our resources quite thinly to provide a service.

"Things are now settling down and we have been able to return to our usual collections from litter bins over the last couple of weeks.

“With regards to the request for an additional cardboard recycling bank for the Gro carpark, which was received some time ago, unfortunately the council do not have any spare banks (or the funds to purchase extras) to add to any existing community recycling sites.”