Missed bin collections left 'litter everywhere'
PA MediaMajor delays to household rubbish collections left litter "strewn everywhere" over Christmas, according to an MP.
Labour's Michelle Scrogham said she has regularly received messages from constituents in Cumbria regarding household waste collections over the last two years, but her office was flooded with complaints over the Christmas period.
People across her Barrow and Furness constituency reported bins overflowing and rubbish left uncollected "for weeks".
Westmorland and Furness Council apologised for delays to collections which it says were caused by "late changes to staffing and operational availability."
But Scrogham said: "There's bin bags torn open, there's litter strewn everywhere. It's blowing around the town, it looks unsightly, it's not fair to residents.
"I really welcome the fact that they've apologised for it but words mean nothing to the residents that have been impacted by this.
"We need some serious response to this – we need a proper clean-up of the town."
'Huge frustration'
Residents also reported delays or changes to their household waste collections were not communicated properly, leaving many uncertain as to when they should put their bins out.
"The dramatic escalation was over the Christmas period where there was a huge volume of complaints and a huge amount of frustration because the information wasn't coming out to say what was happening," Scrogham said.
"It's just utterly unacceptable – these are the basic services and they're just not doing it."
One Dalton resident, who did not wish to be named, said her elderly mother's recycling wasn't collected at all during the festive period.
"The bottle bin never got collected at all, not once, and I think the red bin only got collected once.
"She was keeping her rubbish in the house in a bin bag, which could attract vermin.
"It's a service we pay tax for, that's what pains me."
Westmorland and Furness Council accepted the service over Christmas fell "below standard" and it understood residents' frustrations.
It says crews have now fully caught up with collections and are reviewing what went wrong.
