SCOTTISH Borders Council chiefs have been forced to admit they miss more than 2,000 bin collections each year.

Figures released through a freedom of information request show that over the last five years, council bin crews have failed to empty more than 11,000 bins from around 50,000 households.

Furthermore, the number of bins missed each year has been rising since 2014, when 1,803 bins collections were missed.

Three years later, in 2017, that number had risen to 2,173, and already this year 2,758 bins have been missed.

Opposition councillors have lined up to criticise the figures, particularly in the wake of allegations that Scottish Borders Council is considering moving to three-weekly bin collections when the budget is proposed in February of next year.

Hawick and Denholm councillor Clair Ramage said: “Bin collection is a very emotive subject and as councillors we receive many complaints over this very issue.

“To see that there has been a rise in the number of missed bin collections is extremely alarming and has to be investigated as a matter of urgency but this is only the tip of the iceberg.

“In the last month we have been informed that Scottish Borders Council is considering tri-weekly uplifts, a change that I am completely opposed to.

“At the moment Scottish Borders Council is struggling as we have seen householders use their recycling bins for general waste when their general waste bins are full.

“This creates other problems, the recycling vehicles are then contaminated with general waste and have to pay penalties to the processing company.

“If bi-weekly lifts are not working then tri weekly lifts will create even more problems, for example fly tipping.

“I realise that budgets are tight but the combination of missed bin collections resulting in rubbish spilling over encouraging vermin is not something that as a community we should accept.”

Hawick and Hermitage councillor Watson McAteer also commented: "I do not recall missed bin collections being a statistic that is regularly shared with councillors. Perhaps the fact that for whatever reason 11,000 bins have failed to be collected explains why this is not on public record.

“I am regularly receiving complaints from constituents who find their bins still full on the pavement after the collection date.

“While of course there will always be occasions when the council have no control of the situation the figures being produced certainly challenge the current collection policy.

“Can you imagine the problems this would cause if three-weekly collection was to be introduced? I for one will not support such a move and would ask the council to explain to council tax payers why this problem exists and what they are doing to resolve it.”

According to data collected by the Local Government Benchmarking Framework, which is a comparison network for Scottish councils, 78.9 per cent of Scottish Borders are satisfied with their local refuse collection.

However, this is below the Scottish average of 81.7 per cent and is the second lowest of the rural and island councils that Scottish Borders Council is grouped with.

The council also spends £86.90 per premises on waste disposal, which is below the Scottish average of £98.90.

Leader of the opposition and Tweeddale East councillor Stuart Bell said that Scottish Borders Council officers work hard to rectify issues, but residents need to be aware of how to report missed bin collections.

He said: “I will be interested in the council’s conclusions on the long term trend. As I recall there has been a gradual introduction of food waste collections into the larger communities in the last few years, so the number of total collections may have increased at the same time as the number of missed collections has increased.

“But I am concerned to see the detail of missed bin collections. I had expected, and can see, that the number of missed collections is higher in the winter months when the teams can have difficulty getting round in the snow, but it is worrying that the level of missed collections never drops below 100 in any one month.  

“The public needs to know that there is a very easy mechanism of reporting missed collections on the council’s website and, in my experience, refuse and recycling staff at Scottish Borders Council do follow-up on issues if there is a systematic cause.”

A spokesperson for Scottish Borders Council said that the number of bins left unemptied each year is actually very small compared to the number the council collection.

The authority’s waste management service says it collects around 4.3m bins each year, meaning the number of missed bins equates to less than half a per cent.

The spokesperson said: “The number of missed bin collections over the last five years will be dependent on a number of factors including: the provision of a new weekly food waste service to around 27,000 households in 2015; access issues due to obstruction and road closures; vehicle breakdowns; adverse weather; service error; an increase in the number of new homes which bins are collected from each year; and bins not being presented by householders by 7am on scheduled collection days and incorrectly reported as missed.

“It is not possible to determine the exact cause of any increase in missed collections but the increasingly challenging winters experienced across the Borders will be having an impact.

“That was the case this year, when the extreme winter conditions experienced in January, February and March caused significant disruption, with three full days where collections were unable to be carried out across the Borders.

“Householders reporting a missed collection over this period will have contributed significantly to the increase this year.”