The widespread and persistent missed waste collection saga will cost up to £30,000 to solve, it has emerged.

Additional contractors have been hired by Epping Forest District Council to help deal with problems caused by the new four-day collection schedule, which Biffa crews started on May 12.

Extra vehicles and staff are being provided by the additional contractor and have already cost £13,274 on top of the £50million Biffa contract, with councillor Will Breare-Hall announcing costs are likely to rise at a meeting last night.

He said: “The extent to which these costs may rise is dependent on Biffa’s future performance, which I am pleased to say is now improving.

“I estimate that in the next six-to-eight weeks we will incur extra monitoring costs up to around £1,500 per week with some potential for some further use of external contractors.

“Accordingly, I wish to announce it is likely to be in the region of £25,000 to £30,000.”

The new schedule saw rubbish pile up on roads around Epping Forest, as crews failed to complete more work in less time.

Epping councillor Jon Whitehouse questioned the suitability of the routes and Biffa’s realistic chances of completing them.

He said: “Based on what we have heard about the amount of extra resources going into the contract… it has got to raise questions about how realistic the original proposals put forward were.

“Can we just clarify, to what extent are these new routes and these new resources permanent fixtures because the original contract was inadequate, and to what extent are they temporary resources which will be withdrawn over time?”

Cllr Breare-Hall claimed the external contractors would only be a temporary measure, but councillors including Lesley Wagland criticised Biffa’s original tendering process and the council’s supposed reasoning behind the four-day schedule.

She said: “A particular concern I have is that I do not think this has been the council’s finest hour in terms of communication… the rationale given for what was happening was the change of dates in order to be able to avoid the problem of bank holiday Mondays.

“That clearly – and I have endless emails from my residents to the effect – cannot have been the rationale.

“When you actually look at it, it would have made no sense to do so and I am assuming the tendering was done on the basis of the four days, and I assuming that it was thought that was more efficient and more cost effective.”