BOSSES at the helm of Barrow's controversial Garden Waste Club have promised an extra collection for anyone whose bin is not emptied as they iron out "teething problems" with the service.

FCC Environment also states it will spend the next month working on the routes trucks will make across the town before new members are able to join from July.

The latest pledge comes after residents across the area reacted angrily to ongoing chaos over the collection of green bins by the private firm, which has offered the service since April.

It closed to new members some weeks ago - leaving householders with no way to dispose of garden trimmings and cut grass unless they are able to drive it to refuse sites run by Cumbria County Council.

It is now understood problems with the Garden Waste Club began when FCC underestimated the percentage of the borough's 33,500 households that would opt to pay the £35 annual charge to have a green bin emptied fortnightly.

When thousands more people signed up than initially anticipated, with more applying to join on a daily basis, capacity within the service became stretched.

But this week, a spokesman for FCC Environmental told the Evening Mail: "The club has been incredibly popular and we would like to thank the residents of Barrow for this level of support but we are aware that there have been some teething problems for which we apologise.

"As residents were joining daily requiring us to look each time at the routes and timings of our vehicles, we have decided to focus in May and June on getting the routing right with the current members.

"We will then re-open to new members from July. We would like to assure club members that their green bins will be collected.

"We would ask that members call our club line and we will organise a free extra collection for later that week."

The Green Waste Club does not form part of the troubled refuse, recycling street cleaning contract tendered out to FCC by Barrow Borough Council - which is set to move to a four-day-a-week service within weeks.

But Barrow Borough Council leader, Councillor Dave Pidduck, said: "With the Green Waste Club, the initial uptake went beyond what I think FCC realised would happen.

"The numbers are really huge. I think they thought it would be around 3,000 in the first year, but they are up to 8,000 or something like that.

"For people who have joined but haven't had their bins collected, that's not on. If people pay the money you expect the service."

Missed collections and confusion over whether garden club members who have not been given stickers will have their bin emptied has prompted scores of complaints to the Evening Mail.

FCC bosses have now clarified that members' bins will be emptied on the allotted day whether or not they have a sticker attached.

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