Neighbours in Penhill were unhappy to discover that their blue recycling bags had not been emptied on time during the start of Swindon's waste collection scheme.

A resident on Penhill Drive contacted the Adver to report that around a dozen properties on the street had been missed out.

This comes as the biggest change to Swindon's waste collection in 15 years has just been rolled out across the borough.

Swindon Borough Council says that 99 per cent of houses had their bins and bags collected on time, with only a few full receptacles remaining near the roadside on some routes.

Pedro Sousa said: "They went around Penhill but left that part of my street.

"When my wife reported this, they closed the case by saying they would come back on December 12, which is weeks away.

"It seems rather disorganised. I pay my council tax and do not expect to be treated like this.

"Later, a council van arrived and two men took the recycling from one of the houses but not the rest, it's crazy."

Swindon Advertiser: All residents now have two additional bins to use -  a food waste bin and a blue weighted sack for plastic and metal. 

New bin collection days have been posted out to all households with a new bi-weekly cycle of waste collection and food one week, and recycling and food the following week.

The food waste caddies and weighted bags have cost the local authority £600,000, with a further £7 million spent on new recycling lorries to replace its aging fleet.

The names for these lorries were unveiled recently as Charlie Aust-bin, Melinda Mess-Collector and Binnie Piper.

On November 27, council leader Jim Robbins tweeted: "Delighted to hear that Day One of the new waste system went well with no real issues and all waste collected as planned. Hugely impressed by the team at Swindon Borough Council."

The new food waste collections could net the council between £120,000 and £144,000 per year as it is paid between £15 and £18 a tonne. The change will also remove many tonnes of waste from landfill, where the council pays a tax of up to £102 per tonne.

Councillor Chris Watts is Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet member for the environment and transport.

He said: “We’d like to say a huge thanks to local residents for really embracing the new waste and recycling service changes this week.

“It is the biggest change to our waste service in 15 years and residents have really played their part in helping us get off to a good start.

“Our crews have been collecting waste from around 20,000 properties each day and more than 99 per cent of households have had their waste collected, which is a tremendous effort from our staff, who are having to navigate new routes and a new way of collecting waste.

“We always knew there would be some issues along the way and the small number of missed collections along Penhill Drive is one example of that.

“If households have put their waste out on the new collection day and we inadvertently missed them from our rounds, we will return as quickly as we can to pick up the waste.

"The waste in Penhill Drive will be collected on Friday afternoon as part of our normal missed collection process.

“We are still only in week one and continue to ask residents to bear with us while we adapt to the new system into next week and beyond.

"You can find out more information about the waste and recycling changes on our website, including a list of frequently asked questions.”