Three-week wait for binmen after 'shambolic' revamp

Angry residents in areas of Leeds, including Headingley and Methley, say rubbish is building up and they have had to take their own refuse to the tip.

Coun Jamie Matthews (Lib Dem, Headingley) has described the situation in Headingley as "beyond belief" after being inundated by calls from people without a collection for three weeks.

He is also concerned the most regularly reported problems appear to involve wheel out services for the elderly and disabled.

He says both residents and councillors have had difficulty reporting problems, with some people waiting 25 minutes on the phone before being able to report missed collections.

Coun Matthews said: "Quite frankly the whole re-organisation has been shambolic from start to finish."

There have also been complaints that residents throughout the city have received conflicting information about when collections would take place.

Leeds City Council introduced a system towards the end of October. Changes to collection routes and days were agreed following last year's strike by binmen and are expected to save 2.4m a year.

A council spokesman said: "We apologise for problems caused by the new bin collection routes and want to reassure residents they will be resolved as quickly as possible. Crews are working to resolve the backlog and extra recovery crews are dealing with uncollected bins in affected areas.

"Providing services to our vulnerable residents is a priority and we will look into all reports of missed wheel outs as a matter of urgency.

"We had planned for an expected increase in calls from residents about the changes and recruited additional temporary staff to deal with them. Because of the high number of calls, it has sometimes been difficult to answer them as quickly as we would like.

"The new bin collection service will be more efficient when it's fully up and running and we ask that residents bear with us while the crews adapt to the changed routes."