Bin collections: Denbighshire council sorry for missing thousands

“In rolling out our new system, we’ve encountered some issues and problems, and that has resulted in people having missed collections. For that I apologise,” said Mr Boase.

He also responded to complaints from councillors that the head of recycling and the councillor responsible for the portfolio were both on holiday during the first week of the rollout, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Boase said both had booked “longstanding leave” arranged long before the rollout occurred with the head of service attending a D-Day remembrance service.

“The vast majority have had their collection in accordance with the collection timetable but when you get into the 5% or 10% that haven’t – and I don’t know the exact figures, but let’s use that as an example – 5% or 10% of 43,000, you are getting into large numbers of properties, aren’t you?

“But we accept it is a sizable minority that runs into thousands of households that haven’t had their waste collected,” said Mr Boase.

The council said it had crews out on Saturday focussing on key areas which have been missed, with extra shifts so that they can stay out longer.