An Essex council will scrap a waste collection system, described as "rubbish" that "didn't work", with plans agreed for a new way to collect recycling and proposals being drawn up to bring back weekly household rubbish collections. 

Basildon Council agreed to introduce two single-use plastic bags to replace the current blue and white reusable recycling sacks. It is also proposing to draw up detailed plans for the introduction of weekly black bin household waste collections.

The council discussed the plans at a meeting on Monday, 11 November.

The current system, brought in by the Conservatives, who are now in opposition, included large reusable bags for recycling and fortnightly black bin collections.

The meeting saw the now Labour-led administration blast the Tories for the waste collection systems. A senior councillor claims residents were left in tears and ashamed of where they lived due to the mess caused by the collection systems.

During the meeting, Cllr Aidan McGurran, cabinet member for the environment and leisure, said: "We said from the outset we'd fix the bins and this is a major step to delivering on that and we will deliver on that. Some of you will be pleased to know we are getting rid of the hugely unpopular, not fit for purpose sacks, our aspiration is to move to a system where wheelie bins are used for recycling but this will take time and money that at the moment we haven't got.

"So the short term solution will be to move to single use bags, unlike the previous administration we've listened to the residents.

"They put out a consultation and ignored the findings of what residents actually said, and introduced a system that they wanted to introduce that didn't work and we are paying the price of that now and have been ever since. The waste system that the previous administration administered was rubbish. The residents have told us that and we are now starting to act on that and are proceeding as quickly as possible to do so."

Cllr Maryam Yaqub, cabinet member for digital futures and data analytics, said: "I think what is really striking is that we've had one of the largest consultations responses this council has ever had, it is much larger than that to the consultation which happened under the Conservatives which they decided not to listen to.

"Then we have the people who are responsible for an extremely failed policy, when it comes to waste, to the point where people were crying because they felt so ashamed of the place they live and now we've had this consultation and started this process, to as a council redeem ourselves, we've going to fix this, we're going to make sure that we have a waste system that works, it's one of the most basic functions a council can carry out, and you failed to do it.

"Now we have this response and these recommendations that makes sense and address all the concerns that residents have, and you have the opposition leader sitting there and when asked to comment says he's got nothing to say, not only did you fail but now when we are trying to get things right, you've got nothing to say and what you are really saying is I hear you voted us out of administration because of this failure but I am still unwilling to engage, I am still unwilling to take responsibility."

When asked if he would apologise to the residents, Cllr Andrew Baggott, leader of the Conservatives said: "I am not going to apologise to residents, as we've consistently said we acted in good faith, to ensure we drove recycling up, we've never, ever, shied away from the fact the recycling sacks were not fit for purpose, and having recognised that we initiated and started with officers the process to find an alternative to the sacks, because you couldn't walk around the borough and see them flying everywhere and not accept there was a design problem with the sacks.

"We've never hidden from that, but we are not going to apologise for the fact we drove up recycling and in fact we were in 38 per cent recycling when we started the waste process and at the end we were nearly on 59 per cent. The intent and way we went about it was with the right intentions, what I will apologise for is that residents have had to put up with the sacks but we've always said they were not fit for purpose and that remains the same today."