THE borough's rubbish contractors Kier have been fined £10,000 for poor performance.

Waltham Forest Council signed a deal worth up to £90 million for the firm to collect rubbish and recycling last year, but when they took over in the autumn hundreds of residents complained that their collections had been missed.

It later emerged that Kier had cut the number of refuse trucks used by previous contractor Verdant from 30 to 16 in an effort to save money.

News of the fine was leaked to the Guardian by a Kier insider.

The council said the fine was for Kier missing collections in a "particular road", but it is yet to answer the Guardian's questions about which street this relates to or if any other fines have been issued against Kier.

Cllr Clyde Loakes, cabinet member for environment, said in a statement that the number of collections missed was falling.

He said: “The new waste collection contract allows the council to hold its contractor to account...in order to ensure we receive the high standard of service we negotiated and are paying for.

“Rightly, where shortcomings are identified the council will hold Kier to account and utilise the terms of the contract to levy fines where appropriate."

He added that the amount of recycling collected was up seven per cent on this time last year.

Residents who spoke to the Guardian gave a mixed picture of rubbish collections eight months on from Kier taking over the service.

Vicki Beaver, 28, of Brook Crescent in Chingford, was one of dozens of residents who contacted this newspaper last October complaining that bins had not been emptied for weeks.

She said: "It's not as bad as it used to be but the service is still ropey.

"If they miss the normal collection time they turn up later at night instead like 9pm, which is not what you want."

But Andy Duncanson, 65, of Lea Bridge Road in Walthamstow, said: "It all seems to be running sweetly here at the moment.

"They should have been far better prepared when this new contract began but I'm pleased everything is getting collected on time now."

Terry Welford, 65, of The Drive in Chingford, said: "Generally they are on the ball but a few weeks ago our collection was missed.

"They were supposed to come to the street on a Tuesday but it took until Thursday for all our bins to be emptied."

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Twitter

Click here to follow the Waltham Forest Guardian on Facebook