No formal complaints were made about the new waste collections in the first two weeks after the bungled service was rolled out, according to Sutton Council officers.

The failed launch led to the creation of the #suttonbinshame Twitter hashtag and drew criticism from residents who were furious that waste management company Veolia had not collected their rubbish for several weeks.

Images of residents who had queued for hours for extra bins and overflowing garbage containers made the national news and became the subject of several radio shows.

Documents shown to the Sutton Guardian in April revealed 7,337 phone calls from residents and 1,059 tweets were directed to borough officers in the first week after the scheme was introduced.

But Sutton resident Andy Cook was told in response to a Freedom of Information request ‘no formal complaints about the service’ had been made between Saturday, April 1, and Tuesday, April 11.

Your Local Guardian:

A copy of Sutton Council's response

Mr Cook said he was ‘astounded’ by the reply and added it was impossible there had been no complaints.

He said: “I know people who have rung up to complain to the council about the failed collections, so there is no way there could have been zero complaints.

“There have been many people who have complained about the poor start of the service, just look at what was said on Twitter alone.

“They also talked about ‘formal complaints’, but that’s not what I asked. It seems like a bit of an anomaly to me.”

A Sutton Council spokesman said it could not answer questions regarding correspondence with individual residents, but that the borough has worked with Veolia to improve the service.

The statement continued: “We know some residents have not received the service they have rightly come to expect. If any resident feels a council service hasn’t been properly delivered they can make a complaint.

“Details of our complaints procedure are available on our website.”