Residents have expressed their fury after bins were left uncollected for weeks by their local council.
Locals in Swindon were forced to use their gardens and garages to store their rubbish bags after their bins started to overflow.
Residents claim the mess comes after a new recycling scheme was introduced in the town which saw bins being missed.
Swindon Borough Council has apologised to residents, saying that it will take several weeks to fully catch up.
An example of some of the rubbish left strewn on the roads in Swindon
X/Chuggley1
Angry residents took to social media to make complaints, with some claiming they saw foxes, cats and rats picking through the waste and tearing bin bags open.
One person wrote on social media: “Can you explain why our flats (and the rest in our street) have to wait a total of six weeks for bin collections? Last collection being Nov 20 and the next not expected until 5th Jan. What a joke! The street looks and smells disgusting and now rats have been spotted roaming the area.”
Another added: “‘I reported it to the council and received their generic response about it being me that got the dates wrong and to leave it until the next collection day.
“I definitely hadn’t got the dates wrong. Yesterday (next collection day for food waste and recycling) came and went and the whole streets bins still haven’t been emptied.”
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One local posted on the council’s Facebook page: “I’m wondering Swindon Borough Council if it would be OK to leave my blue recycling bag outside your house (Civic offices I’m thinking) see how long it takes for it to blow all across your car park!”
Leader of the council Jim Robbins said: “We aren’t interested in blaming people for it. Fully focused on getting the service back on an even keel, then doing a proper lessons learned exercise to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Others claimed that not all of the Wiltshire town had been impacted.
One wrote on social media: “To be fair, a huge majority of streets are absolutely fine. Mine and the surrounding streets are.
“It’s been a colossal job, there will be teething issues and Christmas knocking out two days will only have added to it. We need to leave space to learn, and act, and fix.”
A spokesperson from Swindon Town Council said: “We apologise for the inconvenience caused by recent delays, this will take several weeks to fully catch up and we appreciate your patience in the meantime.
“Christmas was expected to be a challenge with the loss of two working days, but mitigation was put in place with crews working extra hours.
“It was noted that the amount of cardboard being collected, although expected to increase, was considerably higher than predicted, presenting a capacity issue for the new vehicles.”
