Man hits out over long wait for his bin to be emptied
“I FEEL your pain.”
That was a council worker’s astonishing response to father-of-four Leigh Scott’s complaint that his bins were full to overflowing.
But it looks like they’ll continue to attract vermin after Kirklees Council said ‘a lack of resources’ meant they won’t be emptied until the middle of January.
That’s five full weeks between collections.
Mr Scott, 43, is so weary of what he calls the Labour-run council’s excuses that he is set to withdraw his vote for the party in the next elections.
“I’ve had enough,” he said.
“This year, in protest, we are withdrawing our votes.
“We are hitting them where it hurts. It’s a small thing and maybe they don’t care. We’ve spoken to our neighbours as well.”
Mr Scott, a commercial property consultant, and wife Frances, who runs a child-minding business from their home in Kaye Lane, Almondbury, says he feels ‘listless’ over the council’s poor service.
“The feelings of anger and frustration have gone. They’ve been replaced with feelings of abject abdication.
“I’m a pretty standard person. We English put up with so much until the straw breaks the camel’s back.
“I saw the bin wagon at the bottom of our hill on Christmas Eve. It turned around and went away. I don’t know why.
“I contacted the council on December 27 and 28. A man at the council told me he lived on my street and said, ‘I feel your pain’.
“I went online on January 2 and the council said they couldn’t collect until January 14 because they didn’t have anybody available. That’s five weeks!
“There are older people that can’t get their waste to the tip. And the longer it’s piled up next to the bin, the more it will be a target for animals. We get a lot of foxes up here.
“I realise that there are bigger things going on in Huddersfield but this isn’t about money. It’s about how things are run. It’s about communication. It’s about the follow-up.
“None of these things cost money.” Mr Scott took to social media to share his frustrations, tweeting to both Kirklees Council and Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman.
A council spokesman said: “Kaye Lane is a Monday collection and was scheduled to have a collection as usual on Christmas Eve.
“The collection team attended at 7.44am on December 24 for grey waste bin collection.
“The next collection for this area is Monday, January 7, and this is a green waste bin.
“The next grey collection for this lane is January 14.
“No missed collection reports have been received by the services.”