Dog bins in Weston will no longer be collected by an external contractor.

Weston Town Council has brought the dog bin emptying service back in-house after months of issues.

All council-owned dog bins were successfully emptied by the grounds team on November 28.

Bins were overflowing in parts of the Mercury patch after the authority's contractor, Greenways Grounds Maintenance, failed to clear them.

The town council removed 12 dog bins last month and now has some in 43 locations, but has no plans to remove any more.

Its spokesman said: "We are pleased to announce that we are now directly carrying out the dog bin emptying service with our grounds team.

"This will enable us to offer a reliable and efficient service for residents of Weston.

"A cross party working group of councillors discussed how this could be achieved.

"Please bear with us while we adapt the service to meet the needs of the residents."

Last month, dog bins will be removed from Wick St Lawrence due to funding issues after the parish council was not able to find a reliable contractor, following concerns over smell.

All four bins will be scrapped in the village in the coming month after its parish council decided it could no longer justify 'a large increase in costs'.

Dog bins were previously emptied by North Somerset Council for £1 per bin but in 2013 the authority gave notice to town and parish councils that service would not continue.

Central ward councillor Mike Bell said: "It is still very early days and I am sure we will have some challenges along the way but we are heading in the right direction and will hopefully see an improvement in the emptying of bins."

A town council spokesman added: "We are aware certain bins need more than one empty a week and this will be accounted for.

"Over the next few weeks we will also be re-labelling all our dog bins to help distinguish between ours and North Somerset's.

"We recognise the service which has previously been provided was unacceptable and inefficient and we hope you see an improvement over the next few weeks."

Overflowing bins can be reported to admin@wsm-tc.gov.uk with the bin number, date and time.