Worried councillors have sought assurances that Christmas kerbside collection “chaos” in Carmarthenshire won’t happen again at Easter.

Cllr Kevin Madge told a council committee that his email “blew up” over the festive period due to complaints from householders whose kerbside waste wasn’t collected when it was supposed to be.

“Our experience over Christmas was dismal,” he said. “The public were up in arms. We can’t carry on as we are. I’m not blaming senior officers – I know they are going beyond the call of duty to resolve this.”

The place, sustainability and climate change scrutiny committee heard there was no contractual obligation for refuse staff to work on bank holidays or weekends.

A committee report said some employees decided in advance that they did not wish to work on a weekend or bank holiday. In such circumstances a request was put out for volunteers from cleansing and ground maintenance teams.

The council said it was reviewing bank holiday waste collections and working closely with trade unions to find solutions. “A number of actions have been undertaken with the aim of an improved service delivery for Easter collections,” it said.

Other councillors said they’d also received Christmas collection complaints, including cabinet member for transport, waste and infrastructure services, Cllr Edward Thomas. “My email box was substantially full during the Christmas period,” he said.

Questions were asked about how to provide up-to-date information about which areas weren’t likely to have their waste collected on a particular day. Dan John, head of environmental infrastructure, said a council “waste disruption” web page was updated regularly but that communicating with every councillor on a daily basis was very challenging.

Cllr Madge wondered if it might be better to tell the public that the council didn’t have the workforce to do bank holiday collections. “Is there a better way than the chaos over Christmas?” he said.

Mr John said work was being done to try to improve the situation, but added: “Today I can’t give you an assurance that 91,000 households will get bank holiday collections.”

From autumn 2026 householders in Carmarthenshire will have their black bin bags picked up every four weeks rather than the current three, but collections of recyclable products like cardboard, plastic, food waste and glass have been increasing.

Mr John was asked if the four-weekly black bag regime would be rolled out area by area or county-wide all at once. He said it would be the latter, partly based on advice from other councils which had adopted four-weekly collections. “It’s greater pain for a shorter period of time,” he said.

Councillors were told that work was going on behind the scenes to ensure the roll-out was as smooth as possible. Waste charity WRAP Cymru is among those helping out. A new centralised waste depot is part of the overall plan.

Cllrs Gareth Thomas and Tina Higgins said they’d noticed increased fly-tipping in their wards, including nappy waste in Cllr Higgins’ case, and were concerned this might increase with less regular black bag collections.

Cllr Madge wanted to know what the council did about people who didn’t recycle and put out large amounts of black bin bags on the kerbisde. Mr John said waste wardens following refuse crews would send letters reminding those concerned of “their obligation to recycle” and asking if they needed new recycling equipment. This could be followed by a home visit, and in some cases a fixed penalty notice. There have been four such fines issued in the last month.

Cllr Dorian Phillips asked if people with dogs should dispose of their pets’ waste in black bags. Mr John said other councils had advised dog owners to invest in “pet waste digesters” which you buried two feet in your garden and which naturally broke their mess down.

Cllr Sue Allen asked if householders could flush dog waste down the toilet. Mr John said they should not do this as the pathogens contained were very different to that produced by humans and would not be dealt with at water treatment works.