Refuse problems rumble on

"We seem to be going backwards instead of forwards", said Alan Griffiths of Springfield Road.

He is fully behind recycling but thinks the new Rother District Council system is simply not working.

"I don't mind recycling, I think it is a brilliant idea but if they are not giving a service it is a problem.

"This waste disposal once a fortnight is absolutely ridiculous. When it was once a week it was not problem, but we get maggots in there now which we have never had before."

He believes household rubbish should be collected every week and that fortnightly collection is not enough.

"You can't leave household rubbish, especially with the weather we are having at the moment. Hygiene is quite an important thing."

He also is concerned that wheelie bins are emptied then left in the street, and warns if accidents occur Rother District Council will be responsible as the actual owner.

Alan commented: "We seem to be going backwards rather than forwards - it is ridiculous really. We are supposed to be living in a modern day society but this is just crazy."

So far he has a black wheelie bin and a small black box for recycling plastic and tins. He is still missing both green bins, which are for garden waste and paper.

"I haven't got the wheelie bin for recycling garden rubbish so I have to go down the tip.

"We have filled in form after form, and my wife has been on the phone, but nothing has ever come of it.

"We asked for the green bin from day one but it has never materialised. The Council told us on the phone that if you have garden rubbish to put it out, and the refuse collectors will take it, but they won't. That is why we have to keep going down the tip."

David Holden of Landsdowne Way also contacted the Observer to discuss the problems he encountered when going away on holiday - he realised if he didn't leave his wheelie bin out the rubbish would not be removed for a total of four weeks.

Mr Holden was not comfortable with the idea of leaving the bin outside for collection while he was away, fearing this would advertise that the house was empty.

He contacted the council's recycling department and says it was suggested he ask the postman to go round the side of the house on the day of collection and put the bin out for him.

After his holiday Mr Holden hoped his bin would be finally clean when it was emptied but said: "Instead it was alive with so many maggots I could have gone river fishing for a month and not had to buy any bait. I did think about calling the lorry back but thought the better of it as I envisaged getting all my rubbish back and being told that they were not, under the new contract, allowed to carry livestock."

He added: "There is something fundamentally wrong in the system that allows rotting food to be left in a bit in the summer heat for nearly four weeks unless one is prepared to leave the bin out advertising the house is empty or getting other people to push the big bins around for you, and why should they have to?"