A LOCAL councillor has called plans to change his area's waste collection days at the end of the month "confusing".

Blackwood ward councillor Kevin Etheridge has claimed numerous residents have reported "utter chaos and confusion" to him over the council's plans to change their waste collection days. 

He said: "Many residents have come to me and said they are confused about which day they are having their bins collected from the end of this month as the new map doesn't list all Blackwood streets, so how are they supposed to know?

"This is a sudden change for a lot of people and it doesn't seem that the clarification from the council has been all that clear as to what's going to happen.

"It just seems like utter chaos and confusion to me."

Caerphilly Council had recently confirmed they were going to be changing the way they would be collecting residential waste, in order to "simplify the process". 

Currently, residents have their recycling bin and their general non recycling bin collected on two separate days, which the council have realised could be simplified.

A spokesperson for the council has confirmed that all residents will now have all of their waste collected on the same day, which may have been changed from the day they are used to. 

Cllr Etheridge has also voiced concerns about how often people will have their waste collected, citing increased waste as the problem. 

However, the council spokesperson has told the Argus that the collection day changes will not impact the frequency of the collections, with recycling still set to be collected every week and general waste every fortnight.

The other concern raised by Councillor Etheridge is that some of his residents are confused over which day their street is included on, as it is not listed directly on the map. 

The council spokesperson explained that the county has been split into five separate zones, with a leaflet explaining the general areas on a map having been sent to all homes. 

The spokesperson continued: "It would be impossible to list every street in the leaflet so we have developed a simple post code checker with a QR code, available on the newsletter,  so that residents can enter their postcode and find out the new collection day for their street. They can also call a special helpline to find out."

In response to Cllr Etheridge's claims that the lack of clarity is creating what he described as "utter chaos and confusion", the council said they are "certainly not" experiencing this with the changes to bin collection days. 

The spokesperson added: "There will be further communication and Q&As developed over the coming weeks to inform residents of the changes."