Enfield Council says it received 274 reports of missed brown bin collections during the first week of the new service.

The council launched food waste collections on November 4 as part of a major shake-up of bin rounds designed to boost recycling and save £7.5 million over five years.

Environment staff were due to make 87,500 food recycling collections – meaning the reports of missed rounds are 0.31 per cent of the total.

One of the reasons for missed collections was that bins were “not presented properly”, the council said.

Hitesh Shah, who lives in Hydeside Gardens, Edmonton, said it was “total disarray” in his street on the first day of their brown bin collections on November 8.

Mr Shah said: “They were picking up a single bag from every brown bin. They had to do a round throughout the borough again.

“The other issue was green waste bins – they emptied everyone’s, whether they had paid or not.

“It may be teething problems, but this is a flagship policy that was discussed for ages.”

Mr Shah pointed out that older people may not be able to report missed collections using the online system.

He said: “It is going to lead to more dumping. This is a badly thought-out policy.”

The council says it only received one report of missed food waste collections in Hydeside Gardens on November 8 and 44 for the whole borough.

During the first week, out of 12,582 garden waste collections, 175 were reported as missed.

A council spokesperson said: “Enfield Council launched the new food recycling service on November 4. Leading up to this date, we delivered close to 90,000 brown bin bundles, allocated nearly 24,000 garden waste permits and we continue to arrange for the collection or delivery of 140l and 240l bins for household rubbish, recycling and garden waste.

“Food recycling is collected from 87,000 properties every week. The reasons for missed collections include bins not presented correctly, access to roads and properties, and contamination.”

Under the Mayor of London’s Environment Strategy, all boroughs are required to introduce separate food waste collections by 2020.