The missed bin collection that has caused a stink… literally

Bins were left full in the Ridge Hill area of Stalybridge last week, but the council caused a stink when they told residents it would take THREE WEEKS to sort.

A number of residents took umbrage with the idea they would have overflowing black bins for the next few weeks. They feared unwanted vermin and poor smells may follow.

Robert Fullard, of Ridge Hill Lane, was outraged when he realised his bin had not been emptied on February 19, and the anger only grew when he was told he would have to wait for the next regular collection three weeks later.

However, the wait has been cut short by Tameside Council – who sent out their waste team to collect the rubbish after being contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“It is utterly disgusting,” Robert told the LDRS, before Tameside Council took action. “There is often an issue with bins not getting collected and sometimes the smell can be distinctive.

“The main issue is that because the bins are left out in public, outside my house, for what will be three weeks. 

“The bins will be used by passers by which will ‘contaminate’ the bins and so the collection agents will not take them away or the council will try to fine you for contaminated bins.

“This means longer and longer times outside my and other homes.”

Although he said collections have been missed in the past, Robert admitted it was not a constant issue and the whole Ridge Hill area had never been missed out entirely. Groups of full bins are gathered in the corner and Robert claims that the Ridge Hill Facebook group has been rife with complaints about the issue.

Tameside Council have apologised for this error and have now rectified the situation as of February 27. 

A Tameside Council spokesperson said: “The black bin collection for this area was not completed last week and the outstanding streets unfortunately were not reported accurately by the collection crew. 

“This meant that when a number of individual residents reported a missed bin collection they were informed it will be collected on the next collection date as is standard practice for individually missed bins. 

“Where there are outstanding streets due to be collected, our waste services return as soon as possible, usually the next working day, and so since becoming aware of the error we have sent our bin crews out to the affected streets and collected the black bin waste. We will speak to the crew concerned and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”