RESIDENTS in Basingstoke have been left in dismay after their recycling bin has not been collected in over a week, leaving their rubbish to pile up.

Fifty-one residents who live on Wateridge Road have been left with their rubbish, after the council failed to collect their bins on May 12.

Steve Rolfe, is just one of the residents who has been left angry at his bin situation.

SEE ALSO: Basingstoke bin collections 'running behind' due to 'staff shortages'

He said: “Over the course of the pandemic obviously the services got bad and I appreciate that the external company which the council have arranged to collect rubbish have had difficulty with staffing and that’s fine.

“The issue with this one is that they did not come at all and as always I went onto the website and had a look.”

When Steve went onto the website to have a look it informed him that they were unable to collect the rubbish and they would collect in “two days” but this did not happen.

Steve added: “You could not report the fact that the bin had not been emptied so I waited the two days and still no one came to collect it.

“The message changed after day four and it said, ‘unable to collect rubbish because the road was blocked' but I was thinking that actually the refuse was collected on the same day and the road was not blocked and it was all collected as normal.”

A message on the council website read: “No access – Parked cars – We have noted that access to your road was blocked by parked vehicles when we came to collect.”

Steve and the rest of the residents will have to wait until May 27 for the rubbish to be collected.

“As you can see from the photographs there is still lots of rubbish about and I was talking to my next-door neighbour who said all the cardboard that got left out overnight has now got all soggy and it's getting wet and she is in her 80s,” Steve said.

He continued: “She was out there with her black bins trying to pick it off the road and it is starting to look messy and fly about in the wind.”

Steve said he thinks he should get a refund on his council tax.

He added: “Up to now I have understood the reasons why they can’t collect on time because of Covid but the government has now told us we are back to normal and the council also appears to be acting the same way.

“I believe if they are not providing that service then, regardless of whether it’s a third party, I would expect some sort of refund every time they are not picking up the rubbish."

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Since then, posting to social media this afternoon (May 23), Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council wrote: "We are really sorry that some of our bin collections are running behind due to our contractor, Serco having staffing issues. The crews are working hard to catch up from collections missed last week and this will continue into this week.

"Garden waste collections are approximately two days behind, meaning that collections that were due to take place last Thursday and Friday (19 and 20 May 2022) are taking place from today.

"If the bins have been not been collected in your road please leave them out and the crews will get to them as soon as they can. If just your bin has been missed you can report it to us here: basingstoke.gov.uk/MissedBin.

"Thank you for your patience while crews work to resolve the current disruption."

Basingstoke and Deane borough council’s cabinet member for residents’ services Cllr Rebecca Bean, said: “Although we are unable to comment on an individual customer’s circumstances, our records show that the crew was due to collect recycling from Wateridge Road on Friday 13 May 2022, however due to our contractor’s staffing issues, collections did not take place.

"The crew attempted the collection on Monday 16 May 2022 but was unable to access Wateridge Road due to parked vehicles blocking the access. Unfortunately they have been unable to return and therefore residents are asked to leave any extra recycling in clear plastic bags beside the green bin on their next collection. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to the residents.”

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