Residents living in Brennand Street and St Mary's Street, Clitheroe, hit out after bin men refused to collect their wheelie bins from a cobbled back street.

John Metcalfe explained: "We put our wheelie bins out at the proper designated area described in a letter from the council on May 12th, but seemingly this is not the area the binmen have been told to collect them from."

Adding that rubbish had not been collected for two weeks, Mr Metcalfe said: "We put this week's rubbish out as well in the wheelie bin at the designated area on Tuesday, but the binmen reversed the recycling wagon up St Mary's Street and Brennand Street and refused to take the rubbish we'd left out saying it had been left in an area the wagon could not access.

"An hour later they returned in a standard refuse vehicle and emptied both the non-recyclable and general waste into the back of it. What was the point of separating it? It's just a farce!"

In response to the complaints, Ribble Valley Borough Council stressed the final phase of its recycling and refuse collection service has involved 12,000 properties serviced from thousands of collection points.



Director of Community Services John Heap said there was some "internal confusion" over the collection point at Brennand Street and St Mary's Street, but once the error was pointed out a team was sent to empty the bins.

"We anticipated some difficulties and are working hard to resolve them as quickly as possible," he said, adding that while the council understood the frustration felt it would ask residents to be patient, while it sorted out teething problems.