JUST three weeks into Cornwall Council's new waste and recycling collection service, thousands of fed up householders are saying quite simply – 'It's rubbish!'

Since Cory Environmental took over the waste contract from SERCO on April 1, the council has received 38,623 calls – around 3,200 a day – on its dedicated waste and recycling line.

So far people have logged 7,266 missed collections.

As well as not having their rubbish collected, anxious householders are also reporting lorries turning up on the wrong days, foul-smelling dog bins left full to overflowing, and confusion about the new recycling containers, many of which are still to be delivered.

Even though Cornwall Council says these deliveries are now complete in the east of the county many people in this area are still waiting.

There are black bin liners of rubbish and recycling containers piling up all over kerbsides and outside people's houses.

Many people, some with up to three weeks' worth of rubbish, as reported by a household at Higher Tremar near St Cleer, have taken it to Connonbridge tip at East Taphouse themselves.

At Looe, Cornwall councillor Edwina Hannaford has reported her anger that the large recycling bins on the Millpool haven't been emptied since Easter.

'Piles of rubbish have been strewn around the ground. It's a disgrace,' she said. 'This sort of sight will damage our vital tourism trade.'

Cllr Hannaford who also represents Lansallos parish, says she had the 'misfortune' of being in Polperro for the first collection of refuse and recycling, and saw the problems at first hand.

'I believe that with six months to plan the handover this has been handled very badly,' she said. 'It is unacceptable that businesses had piles of refuse stacked outside their shops until the collection came at 1pm when previously it had been before 9am.

'There were traffic issues and the seagulls were having a field day. Collections have been missed, some for two weeks, and the drivers seemed to have no idea where the dog bins were.'

At a Saltash Town Council meeting, the new service was criticised for not being operated properly. People were putting out their refuse on the correct days but had not been provided with collections.

In Callington, Cornwall councillor Andrew Long called on the council's environmental department and Cory to get together to solve the situation.

He said: 'It is frankly unacceptable to have people messed around for two weeks now, when the system that was in place before worked perfectly for the town and for many parts of Cornwall.

'I warned about this before. To change contractors is one thing, but to change the route systems, lorries, containers and terms of conditions for the workers all at the same time was a recipe for disaster.'

At Torpoint, resident and Cornish Times correspondent Paul Roper said that in his road of 65 homes, only half of the recycling was collected and the rest was left and is still there.

In Liskeard, there are black bin bags of refuse and recycling on estates because of non-collection, and dog bins are overflowing, one next to a children's play park.

A Seaton resident said she is situated in Looe Hill where there have been no collections of any sort for three weeks.

In a letter to cllr Alec Robertson, leader of Cornwall Council, the Lib Dem leader cllr Jeremy Rowe has argued that a full apology and inquiry is needed to restore the confidence of local residents in the system.

He wrote: 'There is no doubt the people of Cornwall have been let down by the way this new waste and recycling contract has been handled. This isn't a matter of a few teething problems, it's a shambles.'

In villages there are also problems, some caused by the new lorries unable to access narrow lanes.

In a statement, Cornwall Council said: 'We are aware that there are still problems in specific areas and are working with Cory Environmental to identify where the problems are occurring and what needs to be done to rectify them.

'A team of officers from the council are working directly with the depot supervisors at Cory to deal with problems using their local knowledge of the area and are prioritising areas that are experiencing repeated missed collections.'

Between April 2 and 17, the council's dedicated refuse and recycling number (0300 1234 141) received 38,623 calls. Some of these calls were about missed collections but others were from people requesting more recycling containers or subscribing to the garden waste scheme.

During the same period, the council's customer services number (0300 1234 100) received 85,216 calls (around 7,000 per day that the call centre was available). These were calls about any council service, but the council was receiving calls about waste and recycling on this number.

The council has reported 7,266 calls about missed collections to Cory. More than 470,000 collections of refuse, recycling, garden waste and clinical waste were completed in a seven-day period.