OXFORD City Council must get a grip on missed bin collections if it is to get everyone on board with recycling and fully earn its title as Britain’s greenest council.

Complaints about its waste and recycling service have almost trebled in just a year. Some collections are because we’ve left our bins out at the wrong time and place, the council says.

That’s not going to encourage many residents who face overflowing rubbish because their bins were a few yards too close to their home.

And, as waste chief John Tanner points out, missed collections are usually the council’s fault.

The council needs to lay out what is causing the missed collections. Do they have enough staff and vehicles? Are there technology problems? We’re not told.

Yet it’s probably a good thing residents have complained about the introduction of charges for garden waste collection.

The council needs to know what people value so, when good times (finally) return and there’s more money in the kitty, it can look at making the service free again. Yet it must address missed collections now if it’s to fully earn its green stripes.