Residents in east Brighton are concerned about missed rubbish and recycling collections, with Brighton and Hove City Council due to start food waste collections in the area on Monday 15 September.
People living in Robert Lodge, in Whitehawk Road, and on the Bristol Estate have complained about the lack of regular collections.
Tenant representatives are expected to raise the issue with a member of the council’s environmental services team at a housing management panel meeting next Wednesday (10 September).
Papers published before the meeting said that Robert Lodge had not had a recycling collection since Monday 9 June even though people living there had reported missed collections several times.
The Bristol Estate Leaseholders and Tenants Association (BELTA) has also regularly reported missed rubbish and recycling collections.
BELTA has complained that the communal bins are not emptied often enough and are not big enough for the estate’s needs – and broken bins are not repaired or replaced.
The report to the housing management panel said: “Residents have not received any notification as to when this scheme will start and food waste collection bins have not been received.
“Residents expressed concern about how food waste collections will work, given that the refuse and recycling collection service is so poor.
“Uncollected, rotting food waste could present a serious health hazard for residents, particularly during warmer months.
“Residents are frustrated that, in spite of repeatedly reporting problems around refuse and recycling, no action is taken and there is no observable improvement to the service.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service sent a freedom of information request to Brighton and Hove City Council about missed refuse and recycling collections from January to mid July 2025.
The council said in response that there were five weeks when more than 1,000 rubbish collections were missed across Brighton and Hove.
In the week beginning Sunday 8 June, there were 768 missed rubbish and 611 missed recycling collections.
In the next week this figure had dropped to 525 rubbish and 582 recycling collections although the number increased the week after.
In the week beginning Sunday 9 March, there were 1,446 missed rubbish collections – the highest number.
And in the week beginning Sunday 12 January, there were 1,222 missed recycling collections – the highest number in this category.
The lowest number of missed collections was recorded in the week beginning Sunday 13 July when the figures were 139 for rubbish and 117 for recycling.
I’m not surprised people are worried. Not the best track record currently.
And to think this is the same council that wants to expand East whilst they struggle to maintain and cover current work.
What has management done to address this appalling mess- oh hang on, the kettle’s just boiled!
So missed bin collections have rocketed in the last 2 years, and the council expect residents to believe they will be able to manage new food waste collections because they’s had two consecutive ‘better” weeks collecting refuse and recycling compared to the usual abysmal service.
Ciityclean and whoever the goodies are that are managing refuse and recycling collections! They can’t handle the job! Hove is a pigsty!
I’m a broken record I know but I live near the Hollingdean depot and although our rubbish is collected regularly, our mixed recycling has only been collected twice this year and only after relentless emails. The glass hasn’t been collected at all since last Christmas. Most recently, I was told that recycling doesn’t have a regular collection day but that it was taken when the crews saw it was full. Clearly, the crews are working blind as the recycling overflows right next to the main bin. It’s a constant head-banging-against-wall situation 😬
Brighton will soon have some of the best-fed seagulls and rats in the UK.
Brighton & Hove recycling and refuse is in utter chaos. Where I live in south Portslade, our recycling has been collected once in the last 8 weeks and I now have another 5 weeks of recycling piled up outside my house. We have no rear access to our properties and all the recycling is still stored in the old style black boxes making it susceptible to gulls & foxes strewing it all over the road. It is very worrying to think we will now have rotting food waste added to the piles outside our homes waiting for Cityclean never to collect it!
I think it’s clear that residents have little confidence in an expanded service when the existing one is widely seen as poor. Words alone won’t address those concerns. What’s needed is clear, practical communication showing what has actually been done to improve the service, coupled with rapid feedback and visible results. Only then will confidence start to build.