The general manager of Junee Shire Council has issued a formal apology to the entire community after almost two months of disrupted garbage collections.
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This comes after some residents complained of missing up to five weeks of collections since Cleanaway was given the contract late last year.
General manager James Davis said the community deserved an explanation for the poor service.
“I would like to unreservedly apologise to you for the disruption to the kerbside garbage collection service and the way the service was rolled out to you,” Mr Davis said in a written statement.
“It was a poor choice on our behalf to start the contract with a new provider over the festive season.
“I understand this was a frustrating and unpleasant disruption at a time that you were at home celebrating with family and friends.”
Mr Davis went on to explain what went wrong.
“There were also a significant number of technical problems – truck breakdowns, new drivers, insufficient mapping for the routes – it all contributed to the chaos,” he said.
“And while I was assured the new contractor could manage the collection with one truck, the reality has been quite different.
“I now recognise the handover to the contractor could have been smoother and better planned. Put simply, we should have done a better job.”
While he said the delays and missed collections may continue for a little while longer, Mr Davis promised his team was working with the contractor to resolve the issues.
“Temporarily, one of our own staff members is on board with the garbage collection driver to ensure the number of bins on the footpath matches the number of bins collected,” he said.
“You can help by making sure your bin is out the night before your usual collection day, and by calling council if your bin hasn’t been collected the day after it normally would have been.”
