A BOTCHED process to deliver bin bags to homes left Basildon “looking like a disaster movie” and cost taxpayers £1.2million, it has been revealed.

As councillors debated why “inappropriate recycling bags” were chosen, former Tory council leader Andrew Baggott revealed an “oversight from a member of staff” led to the council’s first choice being unavailable.

Residents previously put all their recycling in a pink bag, but since the new scheme has been introduced they now put paper and card in a blue sack and plastic and metal in a white sack. 

However, the recycling sacks were not fully sealable and blew around in the wind leaving mess across streets.

It has now been disclosed that the council’s first choice bag were not procured after an officer failed to lodge the paperwork in time.

Council leader Gavin Callaghan claimed the “sorry episode” resulted in a £1.2million overspend across the “entire waste system”.

Councillor Aiden McGurran [pictured inset], who is now in charge of waste, said: “The administration ignored the overwhelming voice of the residents on almost every aspect of the consultation.

“They had their own idea, god knows why, and they went with it and we’ve all seen the consequences. Our estates reduced to looking like something from a third world disaster movie.”

The review into the the process around the council purchasing unsuitable bags comes amid a consultation on  a “disastrous” waste scheme.

The current system includes a fortnightly collection and requires residents to separate their own recycling into provided sacks.  Mr Baggott said: “There was a concern by officers, and I wasn’t privy to these particular conversations but there was a thinking that they needed to get this rolled out within a certain time frame in order to actually generate the amount of income that was projected from the increase in recycling.

“And therefore they set a timeline for wanting to complete the procurement which is what led it to actually completing in November, which was one of the worst times that we could have actually rolled out a whole new waste strategy. 

“But when they went to procurement the original bag that have been looked at they were no longer in the world of wanting to supply that sack.

“So officers then went for the next best option. It’s just unfortunate that those bags turned out to be balloons rather than bags.”