Wheelie bin defect continues to cause problems

NORTH Solihull residents whose brown bin has split open now face a wait of around seven weeks for a replacement.
The borough council last week apologised to local people after admitting that those whose container has fallen prey to a widespread manufacturing fault will have to put up with a lengthy delay.
Delivery crews are still struggling to clear a massive backlog after cracks began appearing in thousands of bins around the borough.
With not enough replacements available to keep up with demand, the waiting time has crept steadily upwards since the start of the year.
Originally households were warned that they may have to wait 20 working days, although the sheer number of requests had forced the council to admit that it was, in reality, going to take much longer than this.
In a Twitter post last week, it was confirmed that the average waiting time is now around seven weeks.
The tweet continued: "Please make use of clear sacks (available at our libraries, walk-in centres and Bickenhill Household Waste Recycling Centre) plastic tubs or hessian/jute bags while you wait."
The defect - which is present in the wheelie bins which were introduced across the borough in 2014 - has led to widespread recriminations.
Solihull Council's Conservative administration has described the situation as "unprecedented" and said it was looking at options to try and speed-up the response.
But opposition groups argue that the local authority has been slow to acknowledge the scale of the problem and remains concerned about the cost to the taxpayer, despite previous assurances that a compensation deal was being discussed with the supplier.