As Allerdale’s bin collections chaos rumbles on, the contractor involved has refused to answer questions about the problems with its services.

This week has seen more than half of all domestic bin collections in the borough halted for up to two months.

It comes as Allerdale council and contractor FCC Environment try to address problems with the fulfilment of the £25m contract.

But amid those problems, which saw at least 66,000 bins not collected on time in just seven weeks, the company has refused to say whether it will pay back any portion of the money it has received for the job, or face any deduction in the cash it receives from Allerdale council.

The firm, which was the only company to bid to take on the new contract, has also refused to explain why it has been unable to empty the borough’s bins on time since its new eight-year deal came into force in April 1.

Nor has it said whether Allerdale council has issued a deadline for the contract chaos to be resolved.

And, when offered the chance to directly issue a message to residents of the borough, it declined.

A spokesman simply said: “We have an agreed statement with the council which I am sure you have seen and we have no further comment to make at this time but as soon as we are jointly able, be assured we will update you.”

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Meanwhile, the council has said it is unable to comment on whether it will claw back any of the money it agreed to pay FCC under the new deal.

But a spokesman confirmed that collection rates for general waste had improved since the temporary changes were brought in, with 99.9 per cent of bins emptied on the scheduled day on the first three days of the week.

Monday and Wednesday both saw 100 per cent of collections made on time, he added, with 99.6 per cent of households seeing their refuse picked up as planned on Tuesday.

Sixty nine properties were not visited as they should have been on that day but the spokesman said their waste was picked up on Wednesday.

A council spokesman said: “Both the council, and FCC Environment, apologise for any inconvenience caused and are working together to derive a solution.”