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05
Jul
‘I’ve never seen such terrible service’ says woman, 90, after bins weren’t collected for nine weeks
Residents of a village near Harrogate say they have been left "disgusted" after their refuse was not collected for nine weeks.
Locals of Bridge House Farm, in North Rigton, said they had been left in the dark by North Yorkshire Council as to whether their bins would be collected since the start of May.
The residents said they sent numerous complaints, but that the council did not respond until last week.
Cllr Richard Foster, executive councillor for managing our environment at the authority, said there had been a "safety concern" over access to the properties and apologised for the disruption caused.
Heather Rayner, 90, was one of five households that were affected by the lack of collections.
She said:
I have never known such terrible service, it's disgusting. Nine weeks without a single collection for me or my neighbours.
Another resident, who didn’t wish to be named, said that the smell and the warm weather was attracting rats to the area.
The council recently informed residents that a three-tonne weight restriction on nearby railway bridge had prevented its vehicles from crossing safely.
However, the since sent a lorry to collect the rubbish.
The Stray Ferret put the residents' concerns to North Yorkshire Council.
Cllr Richard Foster, executive member for managing our environment at the authority, said:
As part of recent changes to our collection rounds, we identified a safety concern around access to properties off Harrogate Road in North Rigton.
Initial advice from Network Rail suggested the bridge had a three-tonne weight limit, preventing our vehicles from crossing safely. We’ve since been told that vehicles up to 18-tonnes may be able to use the bridge, though this remains below the weight of our standard 26-tonne vehicles.
We visited the site on Friday last week (June 30) following concerns about lane-end collections and emptied the bins replacing them with new ones to allow a temporary solution using smaller vehicles.
We’re sorry for the disruption and understand residents’ frustrations. Fortnightly rubbish collections resumed today (Wednesday July 3) with the next one due on Wednesday, July 17.
This remains a priority and we’re in urgent talks with Network Rail to find a long-term solution. Officers will be in touch with affected residents.
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