IN respect to Mr Brown's letter in last week's Times about waste collections in West Devon, I felt it would be useful to clarify the situation.

In 2010, the council implemented a new recycling and waste collection service. Thanks to West Devon residents we are currently recycling 60% of all waste generated. Because expectations were surpassed, a review of collection days was required and changes implemented in May, to ensure that the service remained efficient and value for money.

The change has affected over half of households in the borough and we had anticipated some disruption for short period. Clearly we are still experiencing problems with missed collections in small pockets of locations and we are working to resolve these with our contractor.

We apologise to any resident who has experienced missed collections. Residents should be assured that we have a record of all failures and are continually monitoring the performance of our contractor in order to reduce missed collections and the disruption experienced by a minority of households.

I would encourage residents to contact the council if they are experiencing ongoing problems with their collection service.

Residents can contact the Council on 01822 813600 or find further information via our website, http://www.westdevon.gov.uk">www.westdevon.gov.uk

Stuart Jellings

Environment services manager

West Devon Borough Council