Waste and recycling lorry drivers were given no say in changes to collection routes which were implemented earlier this year.

An independent review also confirms that the route optimisation was carried out to cut council costs by using fewer vehicles and staff on the rounds.

At a joint meeting of Powys County Council’s (PCC) Governance and Audit Committee and Economy, Residents and Communities (ERC) Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, July 15, councillors and independent lay members will receive a report based on an independent review of the new collection routes by WRAP Cymru.

WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) Cymru is an organisation that helps deliver the Welsh Government’s environmental aims and objectives.

The review follows the shambolic roll-out of new collection routes from March, which has seen rubbish and recycling left uncollected for days on end, causing anger among residents.

The Liberal Democrat/Labour administration has kept the review secret until now.

This has outflanked opposition councillors, who are set to put forward a motion for debate at Thursday’s (July 9) council meeting calling for the recycling and waste service to be reviewed.

WRAP said: “According to PCC, they undertook this routing exercise to account for new housing developments being built, the migration of the Welshpool and Newtown depots to Abermule and the fact that they noticed that the collection crews were finishing early.

“Once they had analysed the tipping time data, they believed they could make reductions in the number of resources, vehicles and staff.”

WRAP continued: “The drivers at all three (Abermule, Brecon and Rhayader) depots said they had not taken an active part in the round change planning, which had left some resentment towards management, as it seemed that supervisors and foremen had made most of the changes without any discussions about collection areas and issues.

“They stated that when they were given their routes, they all seemed to be uniform in property numbers, which did not take into consideration households regularly presenting double sets of recycling, namely plastic and cans boxes.”

WRAP said that the removal of cardboard recycling sites across the county had seen a “large increase” in cardboard being put out at the kerbside.

WRAP also noted that staff working hours, which are from 7.30am to 3.30pm and until 3pm on a Friday, are among the “latest in Wales”.

WRAP said: “Some local authorities start operations up to two hours earlier than PCC.

“The issue with PCC’s operational hours is that by the time they leave the depot, they will already be impacted by rush hour traffic and will also be affected by school traffic at the end of the shift.”

WRAP has come up with two sets of recommendations, one for the routes and a second for staff.

In a statement ahead of the joint meeting, the council said that things are getting better and a “recovery plan”, which includes extra vehicles, strengthened management support and improved communications, has helped bring the service back on track.

Cabinet member for waste and recycling, Cllr Richard Church (Liberal Democrat – Welshpool Castle), said: “Our crews, supervisors and support teams have worked incredibly hard to improve performance and we are now seeing those efforts making a real difference.

“Missed collections are reducing, recovery times are improving and the service is becoming more reliable.

“I look forward to the committee’s consideration of the report and their comments to further strengthen the service going forward.”

The recommendations include:

• Check the time recycling and waste collection rounds take.

• Review the amount of cardboard in the recycling loads.

• Review the maximum number of properties that can be collected before tipping is needed.

• Review the length of the routes.

• Crews to have mobile phones for better communication with the office.

• Refresher training for all staff.

• Review operational times.

• Management of the Abermule depot needs “urgent additional resource”.