COUNCILLORS in Belfast have called for waste collection services to be improved following a "crisis" that left household bins across the city unemptied over Christmas.
At Monday's meeting of Belfast City Council, members spoke of being "inundated" by complaints from frustrated ratepayers who were given just days notice that their bins would not be emptied in the week following Christmas Day.
In the Belvoir area of the city, some residents have still not had a collection for up to four weeks, a councillor said.
SDLP representative Carl Whyte has called for the issue to be a focus for the council going forward, while a call was made to re-establish the city's cleansing task force to ensure household waste was dealt with.
Alliance councillor Jenna Maghie said an improved calender for collections must be made available over holiday periods.
"Bins are the minimum service constituents expect from us," she said.
Mr Whyte said of the council: "In people's minds, we collect bins and we run parks. If we fail in one of those, it's absolutely mortifying."
He added that at one stage over Christmas he was considering borrowing a van and collecting bags of rubbish in his area.
Green councillor Anthony Flynn said he had been "absolutely inundated" with calls over bins, while People Before Profit's Matthew Collins highlighted a "staffing crisis" in the council's waste services, with morale "at an all-time low".
He said staff were "overworked and underpaid, adding: "The crisis we saw over Christmas reflects that. If you speak to any of the staff they will tell you about how pay and conditions have gotten worse over the years."
He warned that Belfast faced a "recurring crisis" over waste collection if the situation was not addressed.
