A BLACKHEATH councillor has dubbed Serco’s rubbish collecting service as “sloppy” as thousands of missed collections have been reported since the company took over the lucrative £650 million contract from Sandwell Council.

Figures just for July and August obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the company failed to collect 5.452 bins and recycling boxes.

The most recent figures for the week starting August 22 show a marked improvement with just 64 missed compared to 428 the week before.

But Councillor Mary Docker hit out at the company’s “sloppy service” at missing so many collections since taking on the 25-year contrcat last November.

“The workforce has not radically changed so I don’t see why the service should have deteriorated to such an extent, “I note the figures show an improvement later in August, but I and other councillors are still receiving complaints from residents,” she said.

Cllr Docker added that she suspected the problem was deeper than the figures indicated as she believes some people do not bother to report non-collections.