Powys County Council Reviews 

Powys County Council Rubbish and Recycling office totally incompetent.

This review is for the administration of the refuse and recycling department of Powys County Council. Whilst we are pleased with the crews who come and deal with our recycling and refuse, they are badly let down by the totally incompetence by office staff who are supposed to administrate the services.
The office is a waste of time and the staff sacked and replaced by properly trained staff.

Firstly: a few months ago, we needed more bags for our food caddy, it took four weeks of constant requests to get more. When they finally arrived, they were not the proper shaped caddy bags with tie handles. They were just a flat plastic bag which does not fit the caddy properly and is very awkward to tie up when full. It was obvious that they had not ordered enough bags and had not ordered the right bags when they finally realised that they needed to reorder extra supplies. The recycling system has been running for several years and so there is no excuse for mistakes to be made when ordering supplies of caddy bags.

Secondly, when it was time to resubscribe to the compost bin collection it took several days in order to achieve this. The phone would ring out for ages but was not answered each time.

Thirdly, on Monday, 22nd June we requested a bulky waste collection. We were told that this would cost nearly forty pounds and would be carried out Monday, 29th June. This was very convenient because it was my husband’s day off from work. We waited in all day but our stuff was not collected. Despite numerous phones calls over the next three days we were not given any reason for the failure to make the collection. We were told that the office staff were trying to contact the depot staff to find out what had happened but were unable to do so. Seemingly the collection in fact had been scheduled for 6th July which would be inconvenient for us. At various times we were told that the depot would contact us to arrange the collection but this never happened.

It is a major failure of the staff in the department if they cannot contact the depot. There is no excuse for this with all the messaging means available these days. The council uses a wide range of these and this is just plain incompetence.

Finally on the afternoon of Thursday 2nd July, we cancelled the collection and asked for a refund – they had been quick enough to grab our money but not so interested in providing the service.

This is a serious issue because there are so many problems caused by fly tipping, and although it makes us cross when we see this either on the news or in our area, we now understand why people do this. Powys County Council has wasted four days of our time and have not collected our stuff. On TV we see Council workers with their “holier than thou“ attitude vilifying fly-tippers but clearly from our experience the problem is caused by their incompetence and failure to carry out bulky waste collections properly.

Poor services. Particularly when I comes to housing.

Loveliest council I’ve ever spoken to. Friendly k the receptionist that took my call to the lady I spoke to in the registry department they were accommodating and I was even met with a little song.
Second time I’ve dealt with the council and both times the staff were helpful, happy and honestly made my day.

After begging and begging council to be moved as me and my partner are living in fear right now to constantly keep getting told theres a "high demand for housing" which is untrue as someone i know very well has just been granted a move after only a few months of being where they are meanwhile iv been fighting since 2019 to be moved and keep getting shoved aside IM LITERALLY SCARED IN MY OWN HOME!!! honestly got to be the worlds worst council! No help or support anywhere im actually thinking they are enjoying watching me suffer!

Council tax line - Credit where credit is due. I phoned with 5min until the line was due to close not expecting anyone to pick up. By the time I had gone through the automated infuriating system it left 2mins. Out of stubbornness I stayed on the line and literally on the dot of closing time someone picked the phone up. I wish I had got her name, it was 12.55 on 7/8/25. I had a simple query this time, which was answered, but my review is to that person who picked the phone up at the 11th hour so to speak. Thank you

As a landlord they are awful! Housing continually break their contractual obligations in regards to property maintenance, leaving disabled tenants in damp and mouldy homes. They show no care or understanding, ignoring emails, phone messages and not booking in much needed repairs.

customer service is massively bad…
You know what else is massive?

Not sure why Powys council gets such a bad review really ? they pick the rubbish up weekly, and the other rubbish every three weeks which is fine if you recycle [we do] not sure why people need to speak to them really ?
As for the council tax it has gone up but overall less than other parts of the country.
So stop moaning it could be worse !

They don't collect the waste on time if at all. The same goes for recycling and likewise garden waste for which we pay extra. They don't respond to complaints. It's very hard to get through on the phone.
Just appalling in every aspect!

Tried getting through to Council tax, spent nearly an hour on hold, eventually got through to woman who had problems hearing me, or do she said. In end the call was abandoned after a total waste of time. Public servant's by damn, waste of space

Have failed to find a department that works efficiently in this council, apart from the one that sends out your council tax demands. They seem to work extra efficiently when it comes to sending out the over inflated annual rates demand. Whether it's Planning Services, Refuse Collection, or Highways Department, there seems to be no sense of urgency to sort the problem out!
They state it will take 10 working days for a response, in their dreams, more like 30 if you are lucky to get a response at all!

No one at all ever answers the phone. How can these poeple be helping the public at all if they refuse to speak to their constituents.

These people are lazy and supine. If you ring them, Email them they NEVER get back to you - even over a two week period.

Bulk refuse is a major issue. Have a relative coming up from Cardiff to collect a few bits that we no longer use and whilst here they said they could dispose of other garden items/cooker etc at same time.

Well Powys does not like this. It wants you to fork out £30.00 or more on a collection that some other person will collect (to keep them off the streets?) so - if they ever ring back, they never do, somebody can explain??

What I don't undstand is why we are rates payers and my daughter and partner in Cardiff also pay rates can't do this ouselves and have to line the pockets of Powys and its cronies instead.

Powys Council has to be "on the make" because it has a fortune to find paying out retired council officials.