Almost all scheduled bin collections were made on time in Allerdale last week, the borough council has said.

An Allerdale council spokesman said that just 138 of the 60,514 scheduled bins were not emptied on time between Monday, July 8 and Friday, July 12.

It was the first week since new measures were brought in to combat problems with a new refuse contract.

The figures, the authority said, represent a 99.8 per cent success rate.

The spokesman added: "Of those not emptied on the scheduled day, crews returned the following day, which was a Saturday for the Friday collections."

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Collections of garden waste and mixed glass, plastics and tins have been suspended since Monday, July 8.

The move came as Allerdale council and contractor FCC Environment work to address issues which have arisen since the beginning of a new eight-year, £25million contract.

In just seven weeks during April and May, at least 66,000 bins were not emptied to schedule.

FCC Environment has been the council's contractor since 2003 and has refused to explain why it has been unable to empty the borough's bins on time since the new contract started.

Neither the contractor nor the council would be drawn on whether FCC would be required to pay back any of the money it has received for the contract, or whether any cash will be deducted from planned payments.

The suspension of garden waste collections is scheduled to last for two months, with the halt to mixed recycling collections expected to remain in place for up to as long.

Collections of general refuse, paper and cardboard, and trade waste are unaffected by the changes.

In a statement issued last week, council leader Councillor Marion Fitzgerald said: "On behalf of the council, I offer my unreserved apologies for the inconvenience caused by the issues we’ve seen lately with our waste collection services and the subsequent decision to suspend residential garden waste and recycling collections.

“It was a difficult decision, but was taken to allow crews to concentrate on collecting domestic waste as well as emptying the paper and card bins.

“These arrangements are temporary and we will continue working with FCC Environment, who collect the waste on our behalf, to bring about a longer-term solution with all collections restored to normal as soon as possible.”