Rubbish and recycling woecreates health hazard fear

People have raised concerns over a potential health hazard as more home-owners contacted the Observer this week to say their rubbish remained uncollected, more than a month after Rother rolled out a new scheme, and that they were getting nowhere with the District Council.

Rother had claimed the rollout of the new collection as a success, but the Observer has been made aware of bins crawling with maggots at Westfield, rubbish mounting up at Parsonage Lane, Icklesham and Wadhurst Lane at Battle.

Problems have also been raised at Winchelsea Beach and now Andrew Godfrey, from Three Oaks says he has a kitchen and front garden ‘overflowing with waste’.

He said: “My neighbour and I were scheduled to have our recycling collected on July 24. It wasn’t.

“I sent Rother Council an email. I followed this with a phone call on the Monday and was told it was on a work list and would be collected within three working days.

“I pointed out that is was Thursday 31s, my planned waste collection day, and that I didn’t want them collecting the black bin and leaving the green bin. I was assured this would not happen. It did.

“I emailed Rother on Friday 1st and tried to call them, but the phone simply kept ringing.

“On Monday I did speak to a ‘customer service’ individual who told me that Rother had sent the contractors Kier information about the failed collection on the 28, but that it was waiting outcome - RotherCouncil code for ‘nothing’s happened yet’.

“More amazingly, they have no way of chasing non-collections so I, as a Council Tax payer, have to just wait until Kier collect - presumably on Thursday 7 with a front garden and kitchen overflowing with recycling, representing a significant health and safety risk, given the rural nature of our area. Surely this can’t be right?”

Margaret Emeleus, from Battle, said: “We have for many years enjoyed a weekly collection of general waste by a very friendly employee. This has been an excellent service which since the new system was introduced on June 30 has disappeared.”

A spokesman for Rother District Council said: “As with any new contract, we expect there to be teething problems.

“We appreciate the disruption missed collections cause but would like to assure residents that we are working closely with the contractor to ensure problems are ironed out as quickly as possible. Rubb

“We would ask residents to report uncollected bins by 5pm on the next working day after their scheduled collection to allow our contractors the opportunity to make a collection.”

To report uncollected bins online visit www.rother.gov.uk/article/4960/Missed-bins or call 01424 787000.