COUNCIL bosses have apologised for confusion over rubbish collections which left waste piling up in some Darlington streets over the Easter break.

The March edition of Darlington Together magazine, which is delivered free to thousands of homes in the borough, contained incorrect information in a Darlington Borough Council advert about collection arrangements over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Although the council spent more than £1,200 on printing and distributing leaflets to thousands of homes in an attempt to correct the error, the information did not get through in some cases.

It blamed an “administrative error” for the confusion and said refuse collectors would be working to tackle areas where the build-up of rubbish is particularly bad.

Jim Blumer, of Elton Grove, one of the streets affected, accused the council of “ineptitude”.

He said: “I do not think anybody is very happy with this, it is certainly far from an ideal situation.

“The bags attract cats, rats and goodness knows what else.”

Mr Blumer’s rubbish was eventually collected on Tuesday (April 2).

He was one of a number of residents to call the town hall to complain about the error when the council offices opened for business after the bank holiday.

Darlington Together is a joint project between the council and Newsquest, which publishes The Northern Echo.

A council spokeswoman said: “We apologise unreservedly for the confusion over this weekend’s collections. Due to an administrative error, the wrong collection dates for Good Friday were printed.

“Once we were aware of the error, we took steps to ensure the correct dates were given to residents.

“A leaflet was printed and distributed to about 9,000 homes affected by the error.

“The leaflet informed those residents that the collection would take place on Good Friday and not Easter Saturday as stated in the magazine.

“In addition, the correct collection details were also posted on the home page of our website and on our Facebook page.

“While we took every step to try and rectify the situation, we are aware that a number of residents have been affected and that there is uncollected rubbish in certain areas of the town.

“Our crews will be working all this week to tackle any problem areas whilst carrying out their scheduled collection duties.

Once again, we apologise for the confusion this has caused.”

Waste and recycling collections return to normal on Monday (April 8).

In the meantime, collection times are one day later than normal, so residents who normally have their rubbish collected on a Wednesday need to put their bins out on Thursday and so on.