AROUND 20 unhappy residents stood waiting in the Civic Offices after discovering blue recycling bags were unavailable – when the Vale council had informed them it was one of the collection sites.

And more people gathered this morning (August 6) to be told a delivery would arrive at 2pm.

All households in the Vale were issued with a letter advising of important changes to recycling collections.

The letter stated it was no longer possible to use single-use plastic bags or bin liner bags to put out recycling and it further advised that all residents would to the Civic or Dock Offices, The Alps, Wenvoe, or a library to get the council issued bags or boxes as only these would be collected from Monday, August 19.

Resident, Mikhaela Paterson decided to use her day off to collect the blue bags.

At Barry library, she met unhappy people wanting bags, and the situation was the same at the Dock Offices.

At the Civic Offices, in Holton Road, a crowd of people were awaiting a promised 2pm delivery.

Mrs Paterson said: “As I entered the council offices the foyer was full of 20 plus people all waiting in a queue for their blue recycling bags and boxes.

“They had come from as far as Llantwit Major and had been told that yes it should’ve been 2pm, but employees within the council have had to go and restock the vans at The Alps and so it should be within the next half an hour the council get a delivery.

“Residents patiently waited grumbling in the queue and when it got to 3pm I went to reception and asked if somebody within the council would be kind enough to come down to reception and tell everybody why we were still waiting for blue recycling bags.

“Nobody from the council chose to come down and speak with us which was when I then rang the Barry & District News.

“Following a call from yourself (the reporter) Emma Reed spoke to me personally and apologised for the inconvenience and said that because of storage issues they maybe weren’t better prepared for the bags/boxes to be in the council offices at 8am.

"Ms Reed apologised profusely and said she would do all she could to rectify the problem for the people in the Vale and explained to me why the changes were taking place because residents were now putting non recycling produce in bags - nappies and food waste and all sorts of stuff to contaminate it as a result of residents being limited to only two black bags fortnightly.

“I finally got my council issued bags at 3.24pm from the council.”

The Vale council said it had introduced urgent changes to household recycling collections in a bid to tackle a growing problem with contamination which results in entire lorry-loads of recycling being rejected at the processing centre and urgent action was needed to address this.

Recyclable waste will only be collected if it is placed in council-issue bags or boxes and the complete change will be in place by the end of August

Vale council deputy leader and cabinet member for education and regeneration, Cllr Lis Burnett said: “Vale residents have made a tremendous effort to achieve such a high rate of recycling but unfortunately a minority are ignoring the guidelines and it’s causing a major problem.

“Urgent action is needed and we are delighted at the immediate uptake of the changes by many residents.

“Single-use plastic is also a significant threat to our planet, particularly our oceans, and as residents of a coastal county we understand the seriousness of that damage.

“These changes will also help reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste produced.”