The number of missed bin collections has increased in Slough a new report has said, as council chiefs admit their performance is ‘disappointing'.

Some 34 bin collections in every 100,000 were missed in March this year. That’s according to a report on Slough Borough Council’s efforts to improve its services, presented to council leaders on Monday, July 15.

Council chief executive Will Tuckley admitted the report was ‘disappointing’ – with 14 areas of the council’s work deemed to be operating below standard. Mr Tuckley said: “Taken as a whole performance in 2023-24 is not where we would want it to be and overall it is disappointing.”

Slough Borough Council says it wants fewer than 30 missed bin collections per 100,000 in any one month. But the number increased to 34 per 100,000 in March – up from 27 in February.

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The council says it has put information on its website on what residents can do to avoid a missed collection ‘due to overloading or contamination.’ But it also says it has created a record aimed at keeping track of repeated missed collections.

Other areas where the council’s performance is not up to scratch include housing repairs and action on anti-social behaviour complaints.

The percentage of requests for repairs by housing tenants completed within target timeframes fell to 62 per cent in March – down on 64 per cent in February. The council’s plan said the volume of repair requests it received was higher than expected and subcontractors had been brought in to help clear the backlog.

Some 93 per cent of requests to resolve anti-social behaviour or issues such as fly-tipping were still unresolved in February 90 days after being reported. That’s just higher than the 91 unresolved cases reported in January – and well below the council’s target of 36.

The council’s improvement plan said its teams were targeting fly-tipping hotspots and ‘building legal cases for enforcement'.

Council leader Dexter Smith said improvement in the council’s performance is ‘very difficult to sustain'. He added: “Sometimes we’re just treading water.”

Wal Chahal – the councillor responsible for spending – linked the council's struggles to its financial woes after going effectively bankrupt in 2021.

He said: “It can’t be disguised that with the council’s current financial position as left to us by the previous administration, there are things here that aren’t in the shape that we would want them to be.

“There are things that we are working on, things that we are working to improve but we have a long way to go and we are bound by the financial constraints that have been put in place by the previous administration.”