HUNDREDS of residents across Bournemouth have experienced missed bin collections while the council trials new routes.

Dozens of roads have been listed on the council’s website as having gone without refuse collections due to ‘operational problems’.

A Craigmoor Avenue resident told the Echo her rubbish had not been collected for over two weeks.

Kat Linsley Hood, who has a two-year-old child, said:“One missed week is fine, but it’s two weeks down the line now and it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I already have a bin full of nappies and it’s not ideal. I don’t know what I’m expected to do with the rest of my rubbish.”

The 33-year-old said it was the longest she had gone without a bin collection in the five years she had lived in Craigmoor Avenue.

Stuart Best, street services manager, said as part of the council’s “ongoing drive to improve the efficiency of the service”, new schedules and routes for refuse collections have been trialled over the last two weeks.

An extra fleet of binmen has been deployed this weekend to target the areas most affected by the missed collections.

“In this exercise, we have been constrained by a desire to keep all residents on their existing collection days and have faced some challenges that, despite our best efforts, have made completing the rounds on each day difficult,” he explained.

“The next phase of these changes will come into effect next week and will take into account the monitoring we have carried out over the last two weeks. Without trialling new ideas, the service would not be able to adapt to the challenges we face in today’s economic environment and we thank residents for their patience during the trial.”

According to the authority’s monthly budget monitoring report earlier this month, environment and economy is facing one of the biggest predicted overspends at nearly £2.2million. In a bid to minimise this overspend, the council has been carrying out a ‘refuse route optimisation’.

Larry Austin, director for environment, said the council would “proactively engage with the media and residents if at any point the financial situation gets to a position we are considering changing to alternate weekly collections.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of people in East Dorset will finally see their bins collected on Thursday following weeks of missed collections.