A MONTHS-LONG row which stemmed from 100,000 overflowing bins being missed by collection teams has seen a resident-led petition officially lodged with Barnsley Council with a must-do list being put forward to improve services during freezing weather.

Ruling cabinet members will discuss the latest hit-out at the local authority’s responsiveness and catch-up time on Wednesday following heavy snow and a subsequent sub-zero cold snap which took hold in January.

It’s the latest action taken after Coun Jake Lodge’s rarely-used call for action motion resulted in council bosses being grilled about the backlog, which took several months to tackle and widespread complaints recorded.

The petition totalling 217 signatures purely relates to the Cudworth area but a second online document has already surpassed the 650 mark.

A council statement said: “An apology has been provided and a full explanation given as to the reasons for the disruption to bin collections following significant adverse weather impacts in the second week of January, and impacts relating to the introduction of the safety and quality programme.

“The response includes lessons learned and actions the service is taking to ensure bin collection schedules are kept in future.”

Councillors across the borough were inundated with complaints from residents about the bins not being collected.

Richard Szenk, the Cudworth petition’s starter, said: “We submitted this petition to raise our serious concerns regarding the ongoing issues with refuse collection in our area.

“The current lack of consistent and timely bin collection has led to numerous problems, including overflowing bins left out for extended periods, creating an unsightly and unhygienic environment.( “There’s been increased litter on streets, especially in windy conditions, due to uncollected waste spilling onto roads and pavements as well as a rise in complaints about vermin and public health risks caused by waste accumulation.( “We believe that timely and effective waste management is essential for maintaining the cleanliness, safety and wellbeing of our community.

“Therefore, we respectfully request that Barnsley Council ensure residents are informed in advance of any changes to the scheduled bin collection days and provide an official explanation for missed collections, not a pre-prepared statement.( “Stricter performance monitoring of refuse collection services, including recording and reporting missed collections, and share those statistics as much as is possible should be provided.( “If scheduled collections are repeatedly missed, a contingency plan such as additional collection rounds or temporary collection points should be given.( “We urge the council to take immediate steps to improve refuse collection services and address these ongoing issues to ensure that all residents receive the waste management services they pay for and deserve.”

Matt O’Neill, executive director for growth and sustainability, confirmed that the council’s catch-up had taken longer than anticipated and was one of the council team who fielded questions during the call-in meeting.

Green bins which are for garden waste also had their collection dates postponed by a month from March to April in order to further allow crews to keep on top of the matter.

“With the temperatures remaining below zero for a sustained period, we were unable to safely access most roads and pavements across the borough to complete waste and recycling collections,” he added.

“Despite the snow plan being implemented and gritting being undertaken to primary and secondary routes, the impact of this was over 100,000 missed collections to recover, with the ongoing need to make the following week’s scheduled collections.

“The council does not have the resources available to double up collections on any given week and recovering missed collections is based on using available spare capacity.

“We know it’s frustrating for residents when their bin collections are disrupted and we’re sorry for the inconvenience this caused.”