A RESIDENT has accused Darlington Borough Council of wasting taxpayers’ money after it emerged that some streets did not have their rubbish collected over a bank holiday weekend because of a communications error.

The mistake with the Easter collections in the west end of the town has come to light days after Darlington Borough Council published leaflets with incorrect details about permanent changes to bin rounds ahead of the roll-out of wheelie bins.

Residents in the Denes area saw their rubbish bags torn into by rats after they were left uncollected for two days last week because of the printing error.

In the Easter error, which was printed in the council’s official magazine Darlington Together, residents watched bin men drive up and down looking for bin bags that residents had been told not to put out.

The confusion about rubbish collections in the town in recent weeks has been labelled ‘a farce’ by a resident affected by the Easter collection error.

The council said it had done what it could to inform residents about the communication errors and asked people to check online for their refuse and recycling dates.

The error in the Coniscliffe Road area of Darlington occurred when residents who usually have their waste collected on a Friday were told to put their black bin bags out for collection on Saturday, avoiding Good Friday.

That information was incorrect and, despite council attempts to inform residents about the error, the majority of households put their refuse out on the wrong day, which went uncollected.

One of the affected residents, who has asked not to be named, said: “I would like to know how cost effective it was to have the refuse service working on a Bank Holiday, having no or little refuse to collect. I thought we were trying to cut back, with further cuts in the future.”

A council spokeswoman said: "We incorrectly stated in the March edition of Darlington Together that refuse and recycling due on Good Friday would be made the day after on the Saturday.

“Upon realising the error, we sent a leaflet to affected households and posted information on our social media accounts and customer services telephone lines advising that refuse and recycling should be put out for collection on Good Friday.”