Weeks of missed collections, bin men and call staff being sworn and spat at and people paying out for private rubbish collections – it’s now been six weeks of bin collection “chaos”.

People living across Swale have been blighted with bin-clearing problems since a new multi-million-pound contract started which has been branded “utter rubbish”.

Suez Recycling and Recovery UK took on the £152 million contract that started on March 25 and will run for eight years.

The Mid-Kent Waste Partnership – comprising of Swale, Maidstone and Ashford councils – promised the new providers would “improve reliability, reduce the environmental impact and provide a more efficient service” for the 460,000 people living under the authorities. However, the new contract has seen people resort to paying for their rubbish to be collected by private contractors in Kemsley and Minster.

Bins were left on the street in Faversham leaving people feeling “forgotten”, and a husband and wife in Keycol Hill, Bobbing, put up a sign outside their house which kept a tally of the number of days since their last collection.

Suez apologised and pledged to catch up with the backlog of uncollected waste by the end of April and took on more staff to deal with it. But collections are still being missed.

Swale council says while the service “is still not exactly where we would like it to be” it has “seen consistent improvements in collection rates” since the beginning of April.

However, residents in Minster and Leysdown on Sheppey only had their recycling bins emptied after more than six weeks when their borough councillors paid out their own pockets to get them cleared.

Led by Cllr Mark Tucker (Con, Sheppey Central), Cllr Pete Neal (Con, Sheppey Central), Cllr Tara Noe (Con, Sheppey East) and Cllr Lee-Anne Moore (Con, Sheppey East) have organised the operations and are being charged £5 a bin.

They hired CDDL Recycling, based in Sheerness, to clear eight residents' bins in Chequers Road and Brambledown in Minster on Tuesday, May 7 and then 57 bins in Warden Road on Tuesday, May 14 with the waste taken to the Countrystyle recycling centre in Sittingbourne.

Now an emergency council meeting, which is open to the public, has been called to discuss the matter.

Cllr Tucker said during the collections he has attended, he has seen “rubbish everywhere”.

He said: “As long as I can pay the mortgage next month, I will keep going. It's frustrating for us and it's frustrating for residents, who are understanding but don’t receive any communication as to why their bins are not being collected.

“We get updates from the council saying what bins have been done but when we go to those places we find out that only their green [general waste] bin has been collected and their blue bins haven't.

“I do not know what has gone wrong and what the consequences are for Suez and the council but that’s what we hope to find out at the meeting.”

One resident whose bin was collected by the private contractors is Kirsty Lawson, of Chequers Road, Minster, who described the situation as “appalling”.

The 46-year-old fears it will take another six weeks for her bins to be taken. She said: “I was worried rats were going to start appearing, especially with the hot weather and the amount of rain we have had.”

Meanwhile, Ronald Bunting, a resident of Brambledown, says the new bin contract is “simply not working” after his waste was finally cleared.

The 77-year-old had not had his bins collected for six weeks and said he was lucky to have a second old green one to hold all his household waste.

He said: “We were never forgotten when Biffa was running things but it seems like we are now. Our bins should be emptied as that’s why we pay part of our council tax.”

Swale council will pay more than £61 million over the course of the

contract and says its annual spend will work out at more than £6.7 million a year. The Mid-Kent Waste Partnership has also had to buy its own fleet of lorries as part of the arrangement up-front.

Suez will not face any repercussions at the moment as the contract includes a three-month grace period which ends on June 25 – understood to be industry standard to allow for new working practices to bed in and for staff to learn new rounds and understand the most efficient use of vehicles.

However, the authority has performance clauses it can trigger later on to ensure the service is what it expects. These include failure to provide the intended services such as collections and street cleansing, not supplying monitoring data/reports and legal and health and safety compliance.

It is understood, however, that the numbers of staff and vehicles are an increase on the previous contract, although by how many has not been revealed as it is commercially sensitive information.

Formerly, bins were collected by Biffa but that arrangement came to end last October after 10 years. The contract was put out to tender but only Suez bid for it.

Cllr Lloyd Bowen, leader of the Swale Conservatives, said a variety of issues had led to a service that was “utter rubbish.”

He said: “The problems started from the word go with letters sent out to residents being wrong. Then there have been issues with Suez’s data, its communications and website, the rounds themselves, its new vehicles breaking down and problems with staffing.

“We need answers from those who have agreed on the contract. While I understand they have a three-month grace period if the problems continue there should be a review of the entire contract to see what options the council has as they can’t keep getting it wrong.

“It is vital all members get a full report on the issues after six weeks of chaos and rubbish building up across the borough.”

Cllr Bowen, alongside four other Tories (Cllrs Tucker, Noe, James Hunt and Julien Speed), has called for an extraordinary council meeting to discuss the issues. That will take place on June 17 and hopes to get answers from the Labour-led coalition which agreed the new contract.

People can submit their own questions to Swale Democratic Services by emailing demo craticservices@swale.gov.uk or calling 01795 417330.

The deadline is 4.30pm on Monday, June 3.

Swale council admits “elements” of its new waste contract “have not gone according to plan” and has apologised for the “inconvenience”.

A council spokesman said: “We knew there were going to be teething problems, as there always are when undertaking a large change, but the service being provided was not to the standard we, nor our community, expected.

“Although the majority of residents have received the correct scheduled service, we are continuing to work with Suez to resolve any outstanding issues.

“Collection crews have also been working incredibly hard, undertaking catch-up rounds over the weekends, and Suez has also been bringing in additional resources to assist with the collection of everyone’s refuse. We understand your frustrations and thank you for continuing to bear with us while we settle into this new service.”

Swale council also said it will “not tolerate” abuse towards council or Suez staff.

The spokesman added: “We are sad to say we are receiving reports of binmen being sworn and spat at, and call centre staff being spoken to in an unacceptably aggressive manner and verbally abused.”

The authority says residents can report any missed bins on its website, within two working days of the scheduled collection. It says it “reads and listens” to all concerns.