A “failing” bin collection company in Trafford has been slammed with an urgent improvement order by the council.

Opposition councillors have also called for the resignation of the cabinet member in charge of the situation.

Trafford Council issued the improvement order, with a deadline of January 31, to Amey PLC following repeated meetings between senior council officials and Amey representatives over the past few months.

While those meetings were held in private due to discussions of sensitive commercial information, conditions have now been imposed on the firm by the council to ensure services for residents across the borough are drastically improved as quickly as possible.

If improvements aren’t seen by the January 31 deadline, it is unclear what sanctions, if any, the council will impose on the firm – but the council’s supercontract with the contractor is understood to still be under review.

The order imposes immediate changes on the system of bin collections in Trafford which have been the subject of countless complaints and causing untold frustration for those living in the borough.

It is understood Amey has responded to the improvement order by pumping more resources into the services and making instant changes to the routes bin collection teams take around the borough.

But opposition councillors are unhappy with the Labour administration’s response to the persistent issues and have called for resignations.

But Coun Stephen Adshead, the Labour cabinet member for the environment who is in charge of the contract with Amey, pointed out the problems with the service have persisted since before the Labour administration was elected.

Coun Dylan Butt, an opposition Conservative group member, said: “Residents are beyond fed up with the on-going mess from the council, which has been caused by Labour’s mismanagement.

“The Conservative group has no confidence in Coun Stephen Adshead and is calling for him to do the right thing and step down immediately.

“We are also calling for an external inquiry to start to look at why this appalling fiasco has been allowed to take place and how to fix it.”

Coun Adshead responded: “These personal attacks from the Conservative group are neither welcome or helpful and come rather late in the day.

“People will rightly see this as cheap political point scoring exercise from the Conservatives who have nothing constructive to contribute to help improve the service.

“The action we have taken against Amey shows we are serious and not prepared to accept a sub-standard service, unlike the Conservatives and their record of little or no penalties against Amey is a matter of record.”

Amey hopes its immediate changes will get the service back on track and clear the backlog of unemptied bins around Trafford – with some residents claiming they haven’t had their bins emptied in up to six weeks.

A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “We are having daily briefings with Amey so we can monitor performance and ensure they meet the targets we have set them.”

A spokesperson for Amey confirmed it is taking a range of measures to improve bin collections and stabilise the service across Trafford and acknowledged the service had “fallen short of expectations”.

The firm promised Trafford residents they would see an improvement in the coming days as these new measures are rolled out to address the backlog.

It is understood the new collection round routes will be fully implemented by the end of January.

Amey is also said to be deploying additional supervisors to monitor crews and conduct on-site checks in areas with high levels of missed bins.

Paul Anderson, contract director at Amey, said: “We apologise to customers for the frustration and inconvenience this has caused.

“A detailed plan is being implemented, outlining how the service will be improved and maintained; including details on how the number of complaints will be reduced.”

An Amey spokesperson added: “Years of housing growth has meant that collection rounds were no longer as efficient as they could be.

“The new routes are helping to reduce unnecessary travel by hundreds of miles per week, reducing CO2 emissions and ultimately saving time and costs to public services.”