Mother ‘loses all hope’ waste will be collected

Claire Milne, aged 43, who suffers from primary lymphoedema which affects her mobility, has had three household waste collections since June - each time after raising a complaint with North Somerset Council.

Claire, who has a one-year-old child, has trouble walking short distances and the more she is on her feet, the worse she feels.

Therefore, Claire needs assisted collections meaning binmen have to collect rubbish from an area which she allocates as she cannot take the rubbish to the end of the driveway.

Claire says she has lost hope her bin collections will be done on time without her lodging a complaint.

She said: "I have only had three collections since moving here in May, and none of them have been done on the day.

"They're repeatedly marking my domestic waste on their system as collected when they haven't, each time I have to call up the council to have them collect it.

"They come when I complain but by the time they come, my bins are completely overflowing.

"One time, I had to get my dad, who is in his 70s, come to my house and help push down rubbish to avoid the bin overflowing.

"I just want to ask the chief executive how he would feel if this was happening to him?

"It has come to the point where I have just lost hope that the waste would be sorted, I'm beyond frustrated now.

"They manage to get everyone else's rubbish but mine."

Biffa's £50million waste and recycling contract is due to expire in 2024.

A council spokesman said the authority is looking into the issue.

They said: "We have had issues with our waste and recycling collections over the summer period and the standard of service has been below the required level.

"We have however seen significant improvements over the past two weeks."

Bin collections for food waste and recycling are weekly, where as general rubbish and garden waste is collected every two weeks.

Bins should be placed outside from 7am and could be collected up to 5pm on the collection day.