Resident claims ‘evidence’ was health hazard

A mound of bin bags dumped by a van driver outside a block of apartments remained uncollected during the heatwave to “preserve the evidence”.

Residents were told council officials needed to inspect the contents before binmen can clear the rubbish away.

Denis Hall, who lives in Maynard House, Sturry, with his wife, says residents have long-been fed up with finding their wheelie-bins overflowing with other people’s rubbish.

But an incident last Tuesday marked a new low, says Mr Hall.

“A van pulled up. We heard all this banging and crashing. Then saw all this rubbish had been dumped and the van was gone,” he said at the weekend.

“It was there all week. It stank to high heaven. You could smell it in the flat. There were a billion and one flies, as you can imagine. It was a health hazard.”

Mr Hall says he rang Serco, the council’s waste contractor, to report the rubbish.

Staff told him an environmental officer would inspect the bins to investigate who may have dumped them.

“I was told they needed to preserve the evidence,” he said.

“We were told someone would be round on Friday morning. No one turned up. Then we got a call from the council saying they don’t know anything about it.

“The excuse we’ve had from the council is they’ve been busy clearing up after the students.”

Mr Hall rang again on Monday this week and was again told by a staff member that they knew nothing about it, he says.

However, later that day council officials arrived with a metal-caged truck to collect the bags.

“Let’s hope they went through it to find out who dumped it,” he said. “I’ve nothing against Serco over this. I understand the need to keep it as evidence in the first place.”

Picture: Chris Davey FM4430487 John Hake and Denis Hall with the rubbish dumped in and around their bins