CONCERNS are being raised over the “troubling” track record of Southend Council’s new waste contractor after residents in Kent went “months” without collections.

Southend Council has awarded Suez Recycling and Recovery a £144million eight year contract to take over services, but councillors across the political spectrum are worrying about the rollout.

Suez’s service in Kent has been described as “descending into chaos” and the council has launched a review while Somerset Council was asked to stump up an extra £47million after the company claimed the original £24million contract was “no longer sustainable”.

The new eight-year contract in Southend will include the rollout of wheelie bins and new alternate week collections.

Lydia Hyde, Labour councillor responsible for climate, environment and waste, admitted she had found a number of issues when taking over the role while the leader of the Tory party, James Courtenay, said the company’s track record was cause for concern.

Ms Hyde said: “I’ve come in at the tail end of the procurement of a contract built on decisions taken by the previous administration. Key work on evidence gathering and policy making, that should have happened months ago, was swept under the carpet.

“It was clear to me that unless our new administration urgently changed this approach, that we could well see ourselves in the same position as other councils.”

Ms Hyde added: “I identified the top priority outstanding questions that needed to be determined, such as how many bins will be given to houses converted to flats, how collection will work in densely packed roads, and understanding the impact to conservation areas.”

Mr Courtenay, leader of the Conservative Group, is asking questions of the current administration despite the previous Tory administration starting work on the new contract before the May elections.

He said: “We will be asking the administration what procedures they are going to have in place to ensure a smooth transition. It’s one of the issues with fortnightly collections. If a collection gets missed, waiting two weeks is bad enough but are we going to have to wait a month for the next one?”

Stephen Aylen, Independent councillor for Belfairs ward added: “It’s a big worry. The other worry is that as a councillor, I’m not getting any information.”