Doh! Garden waste bemusement after council letters cock-up

Worcester City Council has apologised after bemused householders were contacted up to three times about this years' service due to printing errors.

Every spring 5,500 people paying for the fortnightly pick-ups receive a letter telling them when the service will start and what day of the week collectors will visit.

Residents pay £54 to have a small brown bin emptied twice a month between March and December.

But in recent weeks three almost identical letters went out, with some customers taking to social media to kick off about it.

Conservative Councillor Andy Stafford, who represents Claines, said he was "inundated" with people contacting him to ask what was going on.

Some residents were concerned about the cost of the letters, with Cllr Stafford saying one made a "polite reference to the organisation of a boozy night in a brewery".

"Some residents received three different start dates for the service, while another said the three letters were more or less identical," he said.

"This service is subject to competition from commercial providers, so there is no room for complacency.

"Labour need to up their game for the sake of the city’s finances - sending up to 5,500 letters three times over is a lot of unnecessary waste."

The council says the mailshots had to be repeated because of printing errors from an outside company.

A spokesman said: "The mail outs were issued from an external mailing house earlier in the month.

"There were two issues - firstly the calendar was printed in black and white when it was designed to be read in colour, and a technical error meant some of the letter text on the other side of the calendar was printed wrongly and was unreadable.

"We have re-written to customers to apologise for the errors and to clarify."

People who pay for the service get a 240-litre compostable bin for lawn and hedge cuttings, leaves, dead flowers, old plants and weeds.