Leeds man rages at 'litter floating around' on street after recycling bins are not collected for over a month

Ben Butler-Sutton said that the bins of he and his neighbours on Stan Cohen Way in Halton Moor were not collected when they should have been on March 7 and he reported the issue to the council the next day.

He said he followed up the call on March 14 and was told that the job is “still open for recovery” but that if it gets to within a week of the next scheduled collection, recovery won't happen.

Mr Butler-Sutton said: “The next scheduled collection was March 21 and the entire street was missed again.”

He said that he reported the issue to the Refuse Department but was again told that there was no guarantee it would be collected.

He said on Wednesday: “We are now in a situation where 12 properties are unable to recycle with rubbish floating around the street in the wind. And the same council are putting up council taxes by 5% from April.”

After the Yorkshire Evening Post reported the matter on Thursday morning, the bins on the street were collected within three hours.

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “We are aware of problems emptying these bins over the last couple of weeks or so and apologise for any disruption and inconvenience caused to residents.

“The service has not been able to recover some missed collections as quickly as we would normally hope to over the last two or three weeks, partly due to the knock on effect of the snow and ice we had and also because of staff cover shortages when schools recently closed for two days. This also coincided with the restart of brown bin collections citywide which means we are currently emptying over half a million bins a week across Leeds.

“The challenge was made more difficult in the street concerned due to a vehicle breakdown on one of the scheduled collection days. A recovery crew has been sent to empty the bins at this location today and collections should then be up to date.

“We are grateful for customers’ patience and support and again apologise for any inconvenience.”