15,000 missed bin collections so far this year in Southampton
The city council has now issued an apology
More than 15,000 bin collections have been missed in Southampton so far this year.
Issues with the city council’s waste service have continued for months on end with hundreds of general waste, recycling, glass and garden waste going uncollected every week.
Opposition groups labelled the situation “not acceptable”, demanding urgent action from the Labour administration.
The city council apologised to residents and said it was taking steps to improve reliability.
A Freedom of Information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service revealed that a total of 15,395 collections were missed across general waste, recycling, glass and garden from the first week of 2025 until the end of July.
The peak for missed collections was after the festive period when 1,728 bins were not collected as scheduled in a single week.
There have been nine other weeks where more than 500 bins were not emptied by refuse teams.
The last week of July saw the highest figure since the start of the year at 1,139 missed bin collections.
Conservative group leader Cllr Peter Baillie said: “There is no excuse for the really poor service that we’re getting in waste.”
He said the service was one of the few areas where residents got something directly in return for their council tax.
Cllr Baillie said: “It’s down to the administration not getting a grip on waste, not getting a grip on new vehicles in the fleet.
“They are now scrabbling around trying to find six of seven new or second-hand vehicles for the end of September.
“This should have all been planned a couple of years ago on a normal renewal schedule.
“They’ve also got problems with sickness and staffing. It’s an example of a poorly run service.”
The Harefield ward member said he hoped the new executive director of resident services, Carol Maclellan, would recognise the matter was an urgent problem that needed to be resolved as soon as possible.
Liberal Democrat deputy group leader Cllr Sam Chapman said Labour had been running the council for most of the past decade but residents were still left wondering if their bins would be collected.
Cllr Chapman said: “Problems with vehicles, staffing and equal pay have been left unresolved for years, and residents are paying the price.
“With food waste collections about to be introduced for a quarter of a million people, it’s hard to see how Labour can cope on top of the current disruption.”
Green Party councillor Matthew Renyard, who has raised issues with the waste service in recent months, said: “The situation with the bins has been an ongoing situation which the council has clearly not dealt with over some period of time.
“The decision to renew the fleet is one that is long overdue and should now have been taken some time ago and until the council get on top of this then these type of gaps in service are likely to continue.
“That is clearly not acceptable and as an opposition member and member of the Green Party we will continue to fight for the investment that’s needed in this service.”
A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: “We recognise how frustrating missed bin collections can be and we’re sorry for any disruption residents have experienced this year.
“Between January and July, our crews carried out more than six million scheduled collections across Southampton.
“While the FOI data shows 15,395 recorded as missed, this accounts for less than 0.3 percent of the total.
“That said, every missed collection matters to the people affected, and we’re taking steps to improve reliability across the service.
“We’ve already begun recruiting new drivers, replacing older vehicles, and reviewing routes to make rounds more efficient and resilient.
“We’re committed to delivering the consistent, high-quality service residents expect, and we’ll continue monitoring performance closely to help reduce disruption.”