The leader of Southampton City Council has offered an update on the bin collection turmoil as issues continue for a third month.

As reported in the Echo in February, residents across Southampton have been faced with unemptied bins for more than three weeks at a time due to a change in the way the work is done.

The leader of the council, Councillor Lorna Fielker, has now issued an update on the issue, stating that the council has ‘fallen short’ in its obligation to residents.

Daily Echo: Cllr Lorna FielkerCllr Lorna Fielker (Image: NQ)Cllr Fielker said: “Whilst there has been an improvement in the collection of waste on a week-by-week basis, I acknowledge that this still falls short of the service we should be delivering to residents.

“We are using our additional resources to address delayed collections and side waste and are prioritising the outstanding recycling backlog in date order.

"I am pleased that a lot of this work has been completed, however I fully understand that that’s unhelpful to hear if your bin remains uncollected.”

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The council leader said she had recently spoke with collection crews and discussed some of the collection issues.

“I spoke to people with a great work ethic who genuinely want to get a good job done," she said.

“There is still some work to be done on this to improve our performance and optimise our collection routes and Southampton City Council remains committed to resolving this issue and ensuring regular collections are restored for all residents.

“I empathise with the frustration caused and strongly encourage residents to continue to report any missed bin collections online within 48 of its due date and leave the bin out.

“I extend my sincere apologies again for the disruption to waste collections.”

Southampton City Council previously said a change in the working practice for collection crews led to many bins across the city being missed.

Under the previous system, known as 'task and finish', crews could leave at 1pm if they had finished their tasks.

However, from January 29, crews were told they could not clock off until the end of their shift which is either 3.36pm or 4.06pm depending on their role.

This change has since led to a huge amount of bins going unemptied, with some streets not getting a bin round for more than a month.