The residents of a block of flats in Hove said that their communal bins had not been emptied by the council since July.
Kevin Hull, who chairs the Grove Court leaseholders’ association, and others living there resorted to making daily collections themselves.
Mr Hull said that he had contacted Cityclean and the council itself but nothing had been done.
He asked one of his ward councillors, Gary Wilkinson, to intervene. Councillor Wilkinson said yesterday (Thursday 23 December): “I have been contacted by residents of Grove Court, The Drive, Hove, complaining of having had no recycling collections since July 2021.
“As the ward councillor for Central Hove, I am dismayed that local council tax paying residents are having to clear their own communal bins of rubbish due to yet more missed recycling collections.
“With overflowing bins of bottles and cardboard this is becoming a real issue. There are genuine health and safety concerns with large mountains of cardboard collecting near to a communal building of flats.
“This will only be compounded by the extra recycling following the Christmas period.
“It is shocking that residents have had no regular collections for nearly six months and are having to resort to clearing the backlog themselves.
“This is not acceptable as they pay their council tax and rightly expect their bins to be regularly emptied.
“There are clearly problems with refuse and recycling collections right across the city.
“I have highlighted this in the council chamber and will be calling on the council to establish a cross-party working group to look at this and other service delivery issues across Brighton and Hove at the earliest opportunity.
“This should not be seen as a political football but rather a genuine attempt to try to resolve the problems once and for all. For too long the residents of this city have suffered.
“In the meantime, I have written to the assistant director of city environment to ask that the issues at Grove Court are resolved immediately and will continue to do so on behalf of all residents suffering missed collections.”
The council said: “We’d like to apologise to the residents of Grove Court for failing to ensure regular refuse and recycling collections there.
“We will be prioritising this as an issue to be resolved as soon as possible.”
Councillor Wilkinson said today (Friday 24 December): “A crew attended to the bins yesterday afternoon following my intervention. The residents are delighted and hope that regular collections will now commence.”
