ISSUES with new bin collection rounds across South Lakeland have been 'largely resolved', South Lakeland District Council has said.

A number of residents have complained of missed collections over the past few weeks as the authority moves to a new collection system, with one calling it ‘mayhem’.

But SLDC has said that while around 1,800 households have experienced problems with the new collections, this accounts for just five per cent of the households affected by the changes.

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A spokesperson said the problems were partly a result of some households being issued with incorrect calendars, as well as ‘teething issues’ with the new rounds.

Cllr Sue Sanderson, portfolio holder for Environment and People, said: “We recognise that there have been a few issues with the day changes in some areas served by the Kendal depot and we would like to thank those affected residents for their patience and understanding over the last few weeks.

“We always knew that there would be a few teething issues to iron out and there would be a period of ‘settling down’ with a huge project of this size affecting 36,000 homes.

“While we understand that it will be frustrating if there have been problems with your collection in these early stages of the changes, we know that something like 95 per cent of collections have been made according to the new calendars and without any issues.

“We also know that, where problems have been identified, they are being tackled and numbers of missed collections are reducing every day. We have also had extra crews out all week, and at weekends, picking up any missed bins and this practice will continue until the new rounds have settled down.

“We need to introduce these changes to the rounds so that we can ultimately make the rounds more efficient, which will save money for the taxpayer and build the required capacity into the rounds to allow us to collect more recycling from the kerbside.”