Councillor questions missed bin collections in Annandale and Eskdale

Bin collections in Annandale and Eskdale have come under the spotlight after a councillor raised concerns about the area’s higher-than-average rate of missed uplifts.

Annandale South Councillor Sean Marshall raised the issue at Wednesday’s Annandale and Eskdale area committee, pointing to data showing the area has recorded more missed collections due to vehicle problems and resource issues than other parts of Dumfries and Galloway.

Dumfries and Galloway Council chiefs admitted that “staffing pressures” and vehicle issues were primary factors behind some bins not being uplifted.

Councillor Marshall underlined figures in a council report which showed 13 missed collections in Annandale and Eskdale due to vehicle issues and 18 due to resource problems — higher than comparable figures elsewhere in the region.

He also highlighted that Annandale and Eskdale recorded 10 missed collections due to weather, compared to a combined total of just seven across the rest of Dumfries and Galloway.

Councillor Marshall said: “Is there a particular reason why Annandale and Eskdale seems to be suffering from missed collections?”

Alan Mawson, the council’s head of facilities, waste and neighbourhood services, explained that vehicles are rotated across the region to balance mileage and utilisation. He insisted there was nothing to suggest the vehicles operating in Annandale and Eskdale were less reliable than bin lorries elsewhere.

On the resource issue, Mr Mawson said: “What we’ve got is some challenges around the full staff complement. When we do see spikes in absence on a normal basis, we see some impacts on waste because we don’t have enough built-in resilience around the staffing numbers to cope with that.”

However, he argued that the situation had since improved, saying: “Through funding that we’ve got, we’ve managed to recruit more crews across the region, which will have a positive impact on what we see as these resource issues.”

On the weather-related missed collections, Mr Mawson explained that refuse collection vehicles will not travel down ungritted roads in icy or snowy conditions due to the risk to staff safety.

He argued that the overall statistics were good, saying: “We’re at 97.58 percent collection across the region, and no different predominantly within those margins is what we see in Annandale and Eskdale.”

In total, 932,609 bins were successfully collected in Annandale and Eskdale in 2025/26.

Of the 23,126 unsuccessful collections recorded, nearly a third were intentional non-collections during the festive period, leaving around 15,500 genuinely missed uplifts across the year.

Figures in the area committee report show that the amount of residual waste — general rubbish that cannot be recycled — has fallen by 4.32 percent over the past three years, with 335 fewer tonnes collected in 2025/26 compared to 2023/24.

Recyclable waste has increased by 386 tonnes over the same period, a rise of 19.65 percent, largely driven by the introduction of garden waste collections which contributed 374 tonnes in 2025/26 alone.