SOUTH Gloucestershire Council has apologised after failing to empty a Thornbury resident’s green bin despite him subscribing to a new £36 charge.

On March 31, South Gloucestershire switched to a subscription service for green bin collection. So far, around 28,000 of the district’s 110,000 households have paid the £36 annual charge for their green bin to be emptied every two weeks amid a furious row between Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors.

Last week we reported how Peter Mainstone, of Buckingham Parade, was fed up with the month-old service after his bin was not emptied at all on the first due collection and was only collected on the second fortnightly round because his wife was outside their house.

A spokesman for the council said this week: “We are aware of Mr Mainstone’s complaint and apologise for any inconvenience caused by the missed collection.

“This happened on April 4 when crews were unable to locate Mr Mainstone’s green bin. As soon as SITA were notified of the error, on April 7, crews returned to his home to collect the bin.”

The council admitted using paper maps to locate Mr Mainstone’s home despite having spent £110,000 on new in-cab satellite technology for crews to determine which houses had paid for the service and which had not.

Added the spokesman: “On the following collection date on April 18 the bin was collected successfully after the crew used additional paper mapping to confirm the correct location. Mrs Mainstone was also present at this time and the crew were grateful for her assistance.

“As part of the changes, all garden waste vehicles now use on-board technology to identify bins for collection but where a bin is not readily identifiable, crews will leave the cab to locate it.

“We have experienced a small number of missed bins since March 31 but this is falling as the system settles in and crews become used to collection routes.

“We would also encourage residents to make sure that they put out their bin by 7am on collection days to ensure it is not missed.”

A petition calling for the new system, which the council says will save it up to £1.2million a year, has been signed by 4,000 people and is due to be discussed at a meeting of the authority on June 4.