A man has called out Veolia after the bin company missed 60 homes’ recycling waste for months.

John Dale, a resident of a tenant- run housing association made of 60 homes on Holtspur Way in Holtspur, Beaconsfield, was desperate for the mountain of waste to be collected.

By the time he aired his frustrations on December 30, the recycling bins had been missed since September 28.

John said: “We keep getting different excuses all the time. It’s just getting ridiculous.

“They told us a couple of weeks ago the bins aren’t being put out.

“I said we’ve lived here for nearly 40 years, they’re in the same place they’ve always been.

“They come, do six houses in a row and then just disappear.”

To add insult to injury, when John complained to Veolia, he was told to put the 60 homes’ waste into black bags and “take it up to the dump” himself, which wasn’t possible for the residents to do.

The problems started when Veolia, contracted by Buckinghamshire Council in April 2020, took over household waste collections, and bin crews from different depots were swapped around to look after new areas, lacking local knowledge. 

John explained: “The guys from the Burnham depot are brilliant, they’re 100 percent on top of it, but it’s the other two depots, and we just cannot find out who’s responsible, if it’s the side of Wycombe or Amersham depot that’s responsible for them.”

Bucks Free Press: The piled-up bags were difficult to store The piled-up bags were difficult to store (Image: John Dale)

“Last time we actually got someone come in and stopped them, they said ‘it’s not my responsibility to take your rubbish away.’” The driver claimed the 60 houses were not part of the road, which John found “very strange”.

Eventually the mounting recycling attracted rats, and the housing association’s management company paid for pest control.

John has also paid £180 on pest control out of his own pocket.

“But truthfully, what can we do? Stuff is being left out but it’s not getting picked up,” said.

When John has tried to report the missed rounds, he was told Veolia was looking into it.

He continued: “When you send an email it comes up as ‘your bin collection enquiry was too late’ - I mean even if you’ve done it half an hour of them going past. We’re not the only people affected.

“Nobody will take any responsibility of what’s going on!”

By January 3, all bags had finally been collected, John said. 

Bucks Council's Deputy Cabinet Member for Environment Jilly Jordan said: “We would like to apologise to Mr Dale and the other residents of Holtspur Way for the inconvenience caused due to waste collection issues. We can confirm that Veolia crews have attended the properties and cleared all of the recycling waste this week. They will make a further visit to clear any additional refuse waste.

"Crews have reported that there are a variety of properties on the site and they have different waste containers and also different collection points and so to address these issues a site visit will be arranged for the coming week.

"We will actively monitor all collections and any change to the current collection points or containers will be conveyed to residents appropriately.”

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