Stinky bins ignored for four weeks, says resident

A council's new waste collection scheme has been branded a "complete shambles" by a resident whose maggot-infested bins have not been collected for a month.

East Suffolk Council launched its new rota of bin collections at the start of June in a bid to simplify and standardise recycling.

Households are meant to have their general rubbish and separated recycling collected on three-week cycles, while food waste is supposed to be emptied every week.

But Parham resident Heather Nyberg said she and her neighbours had not had a single collection in four weeks. The council blamed "teething issues" and said bins at Parham would be emptied later on Wednesday.

The other local authorities in Suffolk also changed their bin collection system on 1 June.

"Our bins haven't been emptied for four weeks now and they stink – it's horrendous and they're covered in maggots and fleas and there are rodents," said Nyberg.

She said she had contacted the council nine times in an effort to have them collected.

"I kept emailing them and they were saying that they would be emptied but they haven't been," she explained.

"I got emails yesterday morning saying they have escalated it and they will get on to the [refuse workers] to return to empty them, but they're still here."

"It's a complete shambles from start to finish."

Jamie Lloyd, who owns a bin cleaning company based in Framlingham, said his customer base had doubled since the new scheme was introduced.

"I can't complain because customer inquiries have gone through the roof, because the bins are obviously getting smelly, dirty and horrible," he said.

"With the moisture it's a breeding ground for insects and with the hot weather as well - the smell is just insane, so residents are very disgruntled.

"But there's always pros and cons, because the bin has to be empty for me to clean it and I'm having to use masks when I'm doing them now, but I didn't have to before."

East Suffolk Council said it was "working hard to resolve issues" with the new service, which has seen 400,000 containers provided to about 120,000 households.

"We are pleased that the vast majority of residents are seeing their bins emptied as normal," a spokesperson said.

"However, due to initial teething issues, including technical problems with some new vehicles, it is clear some locations are not receiving the service they would expect.

"We are very frustrated by this and apologise to those affected. We are doing all we can to resolve these problems.

"In the case of Parham, residents are due to receive food waste and general waste collections tomorrow [Wednesday]."

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