The “fairly dire” state of missed bin collections across parts of Surrey is showing signs of improving.

Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Surrey Heath and Woking councils share a waste collection service that suffered from huge numbers of unrectified missed collections, many of which Amey repeatedly failed to collect, leaving unwanted waste to pile up.

Given that waste is only collected fortnightly,  residents face the unhygienic nightmare of having mounds of trash piling up outside their homes when bins are left uncollected.

Worst among the four boroughs continued to be Mole Valley which had 868 unrectified missed bins between September and December last year – a further 235 were classified as a repeat problem.

The situation in Elmbridge has also suffered from major problems, according to the Thursday March 27 Joint Waste Collection Services Committee – but turned the corner and  managed to overcome many of the challenges it faced.

Between September and December there were 242 unrectified missed  collections, but notably only 24 of those were in the final month.

Despite addressing the main problems, repeat offences remained largely consistent across the period with 35 in September, 47 in November and 33 in December –  for a total of 115.

Collections in Woking were significantly better by comparison with a total of 71 missed bins and 11 repeat cases.

The standout was Surrey Heath which “remained low for the months above with a performance from the Surrey Heath depot head and shoulders above all the others”.

It had one single unrectified missed collection and nine repeat issues.

A spokesperson for Amey told the meeting that route optimisation would begin later this year to improve collection rates and cut emissions, and that Mole Valley’s recovery plan has improved their service and that they are no longer “the worst performing depot in the contract” .

Further improvements introduced in March, he said, were already showing  “vast improvements” following a spike in January due to delays at the Leatherhead tip.

Councillor Ashley Tiling from Elmbridge Borough Council was chairing the meeting, said: “It was good to see that the five KPIs have improved significantly.

“It was fairly dire in September and October last year, so it’s great to see they’ve all improved.”