Douglas Council’s move to fortnightly bin collections has sparked renewed criticism from residents.

One concerned resident has hit out at what he called an ‘astonishing failure of communication’ around the change.

He told the Manx Independent: ‘Here in Farrant Street/Murrays Road, householders put their bins out as usual on Sunday night for collection on Monday morning. Now, Tuesday lunchtime, there are rows of full bins still waiting to be emptied.

‘It seems that fortnightly collection has already started in our area. At no stage have we received any notification of the change, let alone the courtesy of an explanation of the reasons for it or the offer of contacts for advice in the event of problems.

‘For a change this important one would expect a mail shot to every household plus a prominent pull-out in the Courier, or similar.

‘The only notification I could find, after some searching, was a Facebook update published at the last minute, last Friday, showing an confusing schedule of collections. Even if this communication had been timely and coherent, it would have missed the many residents with no access to Facebook.’

The resident explained that if the situation is ‘replicated across Douglas’ there will be ‘a lot of unhappy citizens and a lot of overflowing bins’.

He added: ‘Indeed there is already a flurry of adverse comments on Facebook.

‘In the current financial year the council will spend around £32 million of public money yet it is not capable of the most basic communication with its ratepayers.

‘If central government screwed up this spectacularly there would be questions in Tynwald, moves for an inquiry and calls for heads to roll.

‘If the communications were effective, householders wouldn’t have put their bins out for a bin waggon that isn’t coming.’

A spokesperson for the council said in response: ‘It’s been advertised extensively in all the mainstream media, editorials and interviews in the newspaper, radio stations and local magazines. There have been leaflets delivered to Douglas residents, stands at local events such as Douglas Fun Day and the Food and Drink Festival, and an extensive social media campaign.’

Douglas Council added that household black bins were collected on September 26 which was the official publicised day fortnightly collections commenced.

‘Farrant Street is part of what is identified on the www.recyclenow.im website as collection week one, it said. ‘Garden waste (if applicable) was collected this week.’

The next household waste collection for Farrants Street and others in that area will be October 10 and the next garden waste collection will follow on October 17.

Douglas Borough Council is a UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man partner, and as such, is committed to encouraging responsible waste management behaviour.

For anyone who is still unsure, contact the Waste Services team on [email protected] or 696445.