Weston Town Council has taken steps to empty overflowing dog bins across the town ‘before there is another public health emergency’.

An email from the authority and seen by the Mercury stated contractor Bin-It Ltd ‘has completely failed’ in its waste collection role.

The town council opted to extend its contract with the disposal company in August, despite complaining of ‘blips’ with its service.

Issues have arisen with the Kent-based company being difficult to get in contact with and regularly missing collections.

The council has taken a short-term measure of hiring Pest Control Services Ltd, which usually disposes of dead rats and rat droppings, temporarily to empty bins throughout the month.

MORE: Overflowing dog bins and ‘patchy’ service frustrates town council.

A council spokesman said: “We are nearing a longer term solution and are about to start a procurement process between one and three local companies to take over the service from April 1.

“We aim to present these solutions to councillors at the next community services meeting on Monday.”

Lack of collections have been felt across the Mercury patch, with bins in Castle Batch park and in playing fields opposite Market Avenue in Worle left overflowing for a number of weeks, while dog bins in Hutton have been used to dispose of inappropriate animal waste, such as rabbit pellets and cat litter.

Weston Town Council is in charge of 54 dog bins overall which cost around £4 each to empty.

Town council clerk Malcolm Nicholson said the authority is ‘working hard’ to fix the problems.

He said: “The contractor let us down during December – we made emergency arrangements with North Somerset Council but they were not able to clear every bin.

“Dog muck is high-level waste and quite difficult and expensive to dispose of but we are working hard towards a solution.”

Councillor Marc Aplin has been campaigning for an improved service in North Worle.

He said: “We need to find a local contractor and pay them more money to provide a good service, as opposed to the awful one we get currently.

“The dog bins in Worle are continually overflowing, the contractor keeps coming up with excuses and we cannot sit back and do nothing.”