Families fed up with traipsing down the road to rescue wayward wheelie bins have been assured action is being taken to make sure rubbish collectors put them back where they came from.

Green city councillors said they had received complaints from Norwich people who were putting their blue recycling bins and black waste bins outside their homes for collection, only to find them left halfway down the road after they had been emptied.

And Norwich City Council leaders have revealed the issue is on their radar, with City Hall officers keeping tabs on whether bins are put back in the right place.

The issue was raised by Stephen Little, Green city councillor for Town Close ward, at a recent council meeting, following the complaints.

He asked: 'What more could the council do to encourage waste collection teams to return bins to the correct and appropriate place after collection?'

Keith Driver, Labour's cabinet member for environment and neighbourhoods, told him: 'Officers are working with our contractor to ensure the collection crews return bins after collection from where it was picked up.

'This has been raised in our discussions at the contract strategic board and assurances have been given by our contractor that they will ensure bins are returned.

'Our contract officers are monitoring the rounds and where they find bins not being returned, they raise the issue with our contractor.'

Mr Little said the issue 'never quite seems to go away' and questioned whether the contract the city council has for waste collection includes a clause which penalises the contractor for not putting bins back in the right place and, if not, if such a clause could be written into the contract.

Mr Driver said there was not and said the best way to deal with the problem was for people to get in touch with the council if bins were not being put back where they were picked up from.

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