The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Probe launched as bin calendar mix-up causes some confusion
Party distributed leaflets with wrong information to north-east Fife homes
An investigation has been launched after a blunder over bin collection calendars caused confusion in northeast Fife.
Thousands of Lib Dem leaflets have been sent to residents giving details of kerbside recycling dates.
The move was intended to compensate for Fife Council’s decision to stop providing printed calendars to cut costs last autumn.
However, the goodwill gesture appears to have backfired after it emerged a number of people received the wrong calendar.
A spokesperson for Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said the wrong information had been sent out to a number of properties.
Sandy Anderson, waste operations coordinator with Fife Council’s environment and building services, said: “Our contact centre and local offices are being made aware and I am now making all of the elected members aware as this has been done from outwith our service and we do not know the actual scale of the problem.
“Our service will take a decision on what will be done with the missed collections once we have assessed how many households this has affected.”
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats confirmed incorrect information had gone out but defended the principle behind the move.
“Fife Council decided to stop providing printed bin collection calendars at the end of September 2017 as a financial saving,” he said.
“The Lib Dems decided to send calendars out to help people, especially those who don’t have access to the internet.
“Tens of thousands have gone out. Wrong information was issued to a small number of properties.
“As soon as we became aware of this we provided the right information and sent a note of apology to those people.”
The switch to online-only bin calendars last September was expected to save Fife Council more than £20,000 a year.
Fifers can visit fifedirect.org.uk/bin calendar and sign-up for email alerts by entering their postcode and email address.
Anyone who does not have access to a computer, tablet or smartphone can visit their local library where calendars can be printed off at a cost of 25p each.
Householders needing a bin calendar in an alternative format, such as braille, can continue to receive these by calling the council’s recycling helpline on 03451 55 00 22.