Residents in parts of Caerphilly borough have not had their bins collected since December 19. At William Street in Blackwood wheelie bins are overflowing, as are food waste and dog poo bins, locals say.
Residents claim the issues started in the autumn when the cash-strapped county council changed its approach to waste collection and changed collection days. They say since October bins have routinely been left on the street for days before being collected.
While homeowners complain of rodents being attracted to their street, the council has apologised to residents across the county borough affected by the delays. In a statement, they maintained the issue was a “one-off” and that the street would be cleared quickly. The council also said changes to the waste collection system in October is unrelated to the ongoing issues.
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Pictures from the street on Monday showed residents have no choice but to allow their wheelie bins to overflow -Credit:John Myers
One resident said the street is lucky many elderly people live there who have less waste, but even then the issue is getting out of control -Credit:John Myers
Mark Birkby, who lives on William Street, said: “You can see where the families are because their bins are overflowing now. It’s ridiculous. I’ve emailed everyone I can think of hoping for some sort of response. I am aware that this isn’t an isolated incident. It’s happening across the area so I felt I needed to get in contact with a variety of people who might be able to make a difference.
“This has also been happening for some time now. Before Christmas this was happening quite regularly where there’d be delays, but the delays aren’t usually this long. We last had our bins collected December 19. When you think of all the waste that we’ve got through in that time, it couldn’t really have happened at a worse time of year.
“Initially when it started happening the council would say it was due to unusually high quantities of waste. Then it was a lack of drivers or staff. We’re fortunate we have a lot of elderly in the street and their waste consumption isn’t as high. If that wasn’t the case the street could look really awful.”
Residents have been sharing bins and taking each other’s waste to try and keep bin bags off the street, but they say it’s got to a point where they’re struggling to keep pests away -Credit:John Myers
The bins have not been collected since December 19 -Credit:John Myers
At William Street in Blackwood wheelie bins are overflowing, as are food waste and dog poo bins, locals say -Credit:John Myers
Residents have been sharing bins and taking each other’s waste to try and keep bin bags off the street, but they say it’s got to a point where they’re struggling to keep pests away. Ashleigh Harris, who also lives at William Street, said: “It’s happening all the time. Since October we haven’t had a regular collection. We suffer with rats terribly around the back and all of this extra waste is not helping.”
A spokesperson for the council said: “We would to apologise to those residents in the parts of the county borough impacted by the recent disruption to our waste collection services. Lessons have been learnt and we are urgently revising arrangements to ensure that this was a one-off, which will not be repeated again. We also want to thank all residents for their ongoing efforts to help increase our recycling rates and reduce waste.” For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter