A RUBBISH row was making life a misery for Prestwich pensioners.
Bury binmen were refusing to collect waste from bins in an alleyway behind Hampden Road because they say there was no room for their lorries.
Bury Contract Services staff would only pick up refuse from the end of the alleyway, leaving elderly people to struggle as far as 60 yards with heavy rubbish bags.
And residents came to a dead end in trying to get Bury Council to move mounds of rubbish dumped there by previous tenants.
Cllr Don Wright was involved with both battles and was disgusted with the lack of help from the council.
Cllr Wright said: "I'm not happy at all. It's a dreadful situation. Binmen have said they will collect rubbish from the doorstep if residents are disabled or elderly, but it is just not happening.
"Over the past ten years, people have left mounds of rubbish, which has made the area a dog toilet. The council say it is not their job to move it.
"Residents have been waiting for something to be done for six months.
"They have had not very helpful letters from the council and there has been no agreement about what to do."
Cllr Wright said he contacted environmental health officers but they said the rubbish did not pose a problem.
He got in touch with the assistant director of engineering Eric Butterworth who has pledged to carry out an investigation.
And his next move was to try and get the road adopted so the council will have a legal obligation to keep it clean.
Mr Butterworth said the department had received a petition about the alleyway some time ago but admitted nothing had been resolved.
He explained: "Our staff are not paid to carry bins all that way so residents were told to put bins at the top of the alley for collection.
"People could put plastic bags outside their back doors if they didn't want to do that.
"The trouble was that binmen were picking up bins from some people's back doors and not from others."
He said disabled or infirm residents could have bins picked up from their back doors if they were on a specific council list.
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