RESIDENTS have hit out after binmen failed to collect recycling – claiming a skip was blocking access to the alley.

Phil Clark, who lives on Marsh House Lane complained that his recycling bins had not been collected, and that he will now have to wait a further two weeks before they are emptied.

Mr Clark said: “We’ve been having problems for the last couple of months. We put the recycling bins out on Wednesday night and then the next morning we noticed labels on them to say the binmen couldn’t get access to the alley as it was blocked by a skip.

“The skip is halfway down the alley and not blocking it fully, so they wouldn’t have been able to get to about four bins, not the forty odd they left.

“They could easily have brought the bins up from behind the skip. I phoned the council and they told me to manage my waste better.

“We’re a family of six and we need those bins emptied. I’m more annoyed at the fact I was spoken to so rudely and told to ‘manage my rubbish’ better by someone from the council.

“My rubbish is managed, my bins were out, the council just didn’t collect them.”

Cllr Roy Davies said other residents had had similar problems.

He said: “I have been inundated with calls today about bins that have not been emptied all over the ward.

“I have pictures of Sarah Street in Darwen, as you can see no grey bins have been emptied in the full street, a blue sticker has been placed on each bin stating that the bin is contaminated.

“There are also clear recycling bags in the back which have not been opened to check, and have not been taken away.

“I have contacted the council who say that if they have had a sticker on them they must be contaminated, and say that it is up to the residents to sift through the bins and take out anything that should not be there.

“My issue is this, will they then come back and empty the bins? No, they won’t, and residents will have to wait for two weeks before this happens.

Cllr Phil Riley said: “I will to take the residents concerns to environment management to see whether there’s anything we could do in terms of helping before the next bin collection.

“About the contamination though, there's a significant problem in the borough, not just in Darwen, and this results in entire loads of recycling being refused by the recycling plant, and coming back to the council and becoming landfill.

“We are very disturbed by this and need to try and find a way around it. One way we do this is by telling the binmen to eliminate at the source and refuse a bin that’s contaminated.”