Residents are having to clear maggots out of their uncollected bins, says councillor

Independent councillor Peter Atkinson said residents in North Portslade are suffering from missed refuse and recycling collections and a garden waste service that hasn’t emptied the brown bins for months. He also reference the weeds, which have been making headlines and continue to cause issues.

Peter added: “It is just completely unacceptable and residents in some roads in North Portslade are at their wits end not knowing when the recycling, rubbish or garden waste will actually be collected. And to cap it all we now have the threat of a strike by Cityclean staff looming. Something is seriously wrong.

“As councillors we’ve been told that there are problems with trucks, with recruiting staff, with Brexit, with Covid and with staff sickness…the list goes on. But no mention of a solution? The Chief Executive and the council Leader need to communicate directly to residents and councillors on exactly what the problems are and what they are doing about them.”

Peter said two roads, Drove Crescent and Stonery Close, had only had two recycling collections in three months.

“This is apparently down to the size of the recycling truck but councillors were promised a smaller truck over a year ago,” he said.

“Residents in other roads say that they are having to clear maggots out of bins where the refuse hasn’t been collected or that rats are appearing where bags are ripped open as bins fill up, uncollected."

Peter said he has contacted council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty and chair of the Environment committee, Amy Heley, and pleaded with them to intervene and work with the other political parties and the unions to get to the bottom of the problem and agree a way forward.