SUEZ apologise for disruptions

Published Thursday 11 April, 2024
Last updated on Thursday 18 April, 2024

SUEZ recycling and recovery UK took over the Mid-Kent waste partnership contract on 25 March 2024, serving approximately 198,000 households across Ashford, Maidstone, and Swale.

The company is apologising to households affected by the disruption caused since.

SUEZ and the borough councils in the Mid-Kent waste partnership are apologising to affected households and putting in place plans to improve service levels.

Extra staff and vehicles have been drafted in to support the waste collection service.

Vinnie Masseri, General Manager at SUEZ recycling and recovery UK said:

“We are all working hard to get used to the new contract and to collect all the waste that is being presented, however, we know that at the moment, we’re not completing all of our rounds on the scheduled day.

"This isn’t the standard of service we aim to provide longer term and we expect the service levels to improve as everyone gets used to the changes.

“We’d like to apologise to the households affected and reassure them that our teams are working hard to minimise disruption on the ground.

“We thank residents for their patience while we bed in the new service, in the meantime, please do leave your bins out if they have not been collected and we will get to them as soon as possible”

Cllr Rich Lehmann, chair of the Environment and Climate Change Committee at Swale Borough Council, said:

“We know the service hasn’t been running as well as we would like, and we apologise for this unreservedly.

“We are trying to create a better, more reliable, service for everyone, and this has meant a lot of changes – for residents, collection crews and back-office staff.

“These changes include new routes, new vehicles and new systems that will bring improvements to the service in the longer term, but they are taking time to bed in.

"We have been identifying the root causes of the issues that are delaying collections and doing everything we can to fix them as soon as possible.

“We are working closely with SUEZ at all levels to put together a robust, deliverable, plan to catch up on what has been missed so far.

They are already recruiting additional drivers to help with this and have committed to providing additional resources until the service is settled, and we would like to thank you for your patience while the backlog is cleared.

“Once it is, I’m sure people will start to see the benefits, with fewer delays and more reliable collections.”