CALL centres fielding 1,000 inquiries a day about Vale of White District Council’s new fortnightly rubbish collections will stay open for “as long as it takes”, the council’s leader has pledged.

Despite the flood of queries, the council said the scheme was already getting results, with the amount of waste recycled more than doubling in the first two weeks, up from 39 per cent to 83 per cent.

The weekly rubbish and recycling collection changed to fortnightly collections on October 4. Food waste is collected every week.

Since the switch, about 1,000 people a day have been calling a 15-strong team of staff from the council and its waste collection contractor Verdant.

Conservative councillor Matthew Barber claimed the change to the new system had been chaotic.

But council leader Tony de Vere said: “We will keep these centres operational for as long as it takes.

“We will keep going to ensure that people’s queries will be dealt with in a fast and efficient fashion.

“I expect the system to bed down over the next month or so but we will keep the service going for as long as it takes – we have this facility in place and we’re not standing people down.”

He added: “I certainly don’t think the rollout has been chaotic. Overall, it has gone well.

“In some places residents who need help with getting their rubbish to the kerbside have been missed out and we’re trying to rectify that.”

Mr Barber said: “We always expected a few teething problems, but what we have seen over the past few weeks is so much worse than we were led to expect. The rollout has been quite chaotic./ “We will continue to monitor the situation and try to help residents.

“In some places where residents were asked to leave out black bags, because they hadn’t yet received their bins, the message wasn’t passed on to the contractor.

“Staff then left labels on the bags saying black bags would no longer be collected, although they did pick them up eventually.”

Claire McCauley, 33, from Abingdon, said she had to wait until Monday last week for her new bins – meaning she had filled 10 bags of waste after the previous collection on September 28.

Ms McCauley, who lives off Spring Road, said her neighbour’s rubbish was collected on October 8 but she was missed out.

She added: “I’m looking forward to recycling more but I think the way the new system has been introduced has been pretty chaotic.

“Verdant and the council were telling people that every household had had their bins delivered, when that was clearly wasn’t the case.”