Residents battle with council over bins left uncollected for weeks

A local recycling “disaster” continues as more rural residents claim their bins and recycling are not being collected for periods lasting as long as five weeks.

Angry council-tax payers in Denbighshire say that their local authority is not returning regular phone calls and emails to report issues with uncollected rubbish.

Last week, complaints of vermin attracted by the uncollected rubbish prompted more residents to come forward, particularly those from rural areas.

‘Frustrated’ residents

Christine Marston, resident of Waen, said: “Another week passes, another week when Denbighshire County Council fail to collect my trolley box or household waste.”

“It’s stacking up now. I am having to improvise to contain it all. I think what disappoints me most is that not one officer has responded to my appeals to have my recycling collected, with a little rationale as to why I appear to be consistently missed.”

Ms Marston added: “if I had defaulted on my council tax for the same amount of time, I would be facing legal action by now. All I want is a weekly collection as promised by Denbighshire County Council. Is this so much to ask?”

Dave Thompson, from Rhuallt, said: “I’m emailing (the council) every single week. I’m getting one-off pick-ups from a clean-up crew every now and then.”

“It was five weeks before we got our bin emptied (last week). They emptied last Friday. My next-door neighbours are the same. People are annoyed. It is getting so frustrating after we are being told it is getting sorted.”

Peter Seddon, who lives in Bodfari said: “Whenever it is icy or snowing, they don’t pick up the rubbish or recycling. They just don’t bother.

Problems continuing

Denbighshire introduced a new system in June, which required residents to separate recycling into separate compartments, as opposed to the old blue bin “co-mingling” system.

Recycling collections were increased from fortnightly to weekly whilst waste collections were reduced to a monthly collection service.

But Denbighshire were flooded with complaints from residents for months, prompting backbench councillors to label the roll-out a disaster whilst calling for the resignation of senior councillors.

The council then announced new scheduled collection routes in the autumn, but the problems are said to be continuing, particularly in rural areas such as Rhuallt and Bodfari.

Tremeirchion councillor Chris Evans said: “Houses in the area/post code LL164DA beyond the school have not had their recycling collected.

“Again, this is not acceptable as we have young families, as well as some vulnerable people that live here. It is rural, and we have an issue with not just foxes but also rats, which is a hazard.”

A spokesperson for Denbighshire County Council said: “We are fully aware of the addresses referred to and are looking into the issues of why they have been missed to help us rectify this as soon as possible for the residents affected.”