Angry pensioners call their road 'Bin Alley' after being lumbered with wheelie bins they should not have (From Herald Series)

Angry pensioners call their road 'Bin Alley' after being lumbered with wheelie bins they should not have

1:30pm Tuesday 7th July 2009

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PENSIONERS mistakenly given wheelie bins were told it would take up to three months for workers from a depot a mile away to pick them up.

Beryl James, who lives in Fairacres Road, Didcot, was supposed to have sacks delivered for South Oxfordshire District Council’s new waste collection system, which launched on June 8 and has led already to the council leader apologising for early problems.

The disabled 81-year-old lives in one of several households around the district deemed unsuitable for wheelie bins and was designated pink and green sacks instead to use to dispose of her waste.

However, one week before the launch of the new scheme, two wheelie bins arrived instead and Mrs James said the council told her it could take up to three months to remove them from outside her home.

Domestic waste contractor Verdant has its depot in Basil Hill Road, Didcot — just 1.03 miles from Fairacres Road.

Mrs James tried to report the problem to Verdant using their 03000 610610 number, but, like many residents, could not get through to anyone on the helpline.

She said: “I phoned the council instead and they told me it could take up to three months for them to collect these wheelie bins. I think it’s disgraceful. We call it bin alley here. I have no idea why it will take them so long to collect them. They are only down the road.”

She added: “When they came, they just dumped them on the pathway. It was awful. I wondered what was going on, so I went down and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. They are an eyesore.”

The new waste collection system is designed to double recycling rates, with homes issued with two wheelie bins, one each for alternate weekly collections of general waste and recycling, and also containers for weekly food waste collections for the first time in Oxfordshire.

However, residents claim it has been littered with “teething problems”.

Last week, council leader Ann Ducker and chief executive David Buckle apologised and said they hoped to have everything sorted out by the end of the week.

Great-grandmother Connie Walford, 85, was also wrongly delivered two wheelie bins.

She said: “They never came and saw us to ask us if we could cope with the bins. The first we knew about it was when the two big bins came. Three months is the latest rumour — we will have to wait three months until they are collected. It’s silly. You would think they would want them back before then.”

A South Oxfordshire District Council spokesman said: “Currently, our priority is to sort out the few remaining outstanding problems, such as repeat missed collections, which are of greater inconvenience to residents.

“We expect all sacks to have been delivered by the end of this week, after which we can look to collecting extra bins as soon as possible.”

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