MONMOUTHSHIRE County Council has apologised to residents for teething problems with the authority's new waste and recycling collection system.

Some residents had been impacted by "collection issues", the council said, following the introduction of the new system on Monday, March 4.

Carl Touhig, head of waste and street services, said: “I would like to apologise to any residents who have been impacted by delays in their waste collections and would like to thank them for their patience at this extremely busy time."

The authority said the new system represented "one of the biggest operational changes that Monmouthshire has undertaken for waste collections".

Changes include the introduction of a separate glass collection service, changes in collection times, and new waste collection vehicles.

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The authority hopes the new system will minimise costs and improve recycling services, but there has been some disruption in the first few days.

Mr Touhig added: "Please bear with us and give positive support to the collection crews, contact centre and hub staff who are doing their very best to get the issues resolved. It’s not an easy job for the crews who are doing an amazing job, working long hours in rainy and windy conditions."

Collection crews had been working outside of normal working hours, with some out until 7pm to rectify problems, the council said.

And Monmouthshire’s contact centre and hubs had been "extremely busy with enquiries on the recycling changes and garden waste permit renewals", the authority added.

The county council offered the following advice to Monmouthshire residents affected by collection delays:

• Report any issues through the Recycling & Waste section of the My Monmouthshire app, which is available to download from your app store; or message Monty, Monmouthshire’s chatbot, via the monmouthshire.gov.uk website or via Facebook messenger: @MonmouthshireCC.

• The contact centre is currently experiencing a large number of calls due to waste and recycling change queries and waiting times are longer than usual. If customers wish to hold on, their calls will be answered as soon as an operator becomes available.

• Any residents who still require a glass collection box can go to their local community hub to collect one.

• Residents looking to clarify their new collection dates can visit: monmouthshire.gov.uk/recycling-and-waste