A Borehamwood resident left with rotting rubbish outside her home for a fortnight has criticised the borough council's policy change over wheelie-bin emptying.

Hertsmere Borough Council has decided to stop emptying wheelie-bins which it has not supplied, on the grounds that they are not strong enough and pose a risk to refuse collectors.

However, resident Lisa Minot, who lives in St Neots Close, criticised the council for changing the rules without informing residents that it would no longer empty wheelie-bins residents have bought from other outlets.

The policy change was finalised by the borough council's executive on June 12, because of concerns that wheelie-bins bought from private suppliers were made of a weaker plastic than the council-supplied ones, and could break when being loaded onto lorries, or become detached from the lorries' bin-lifters, which posed a risk to refuse collectors.

A council spokesman confirmed this week that there had been two recent accidents, when collectors had been injured when handling the "inferior quality bins" and needed hospital treatment.

However, refuse collectors had refused to empty Ms Minot's non-council wheelie-bin the week before the executive meeting, leaving it full of rubbish for a two-and-a-half weeks. Refuse collectors finally agreed to empty it as a one-off at the weekend.

Ms Minot said: "My bin had been emptied for two years, and then all of a sudden they stopped emptying it. I was left with a wheelie-bin full of rotting rubbish for two weeks because they had decided not to empty it. It smelt revolting.

"My issue is they did not tell anyone they had changed the rules and they let people fill up their bins, and then did not empty them."

The council said the collectors had been right not to collect bins like Ms Minot's for health and safety reasons, and information leaflets were due to be sent to residents this week.

The council is offering to replace the estimated 400 privately-acquired bins in Hertsmere with council bins for free.

June 26, 2002 15:00