Pensioners are calling for more frequent bin collections after rubbish has been left uncollected at their sheltered living accommodation for weeks at a time – with fears it will attract rats.

Residents at Sax House in Western Close, Letchworth GC, are asking North Herts District Council (NHDC) to increase collections to cope with the demand at their flats.

Currently the bins are collected on a two-week rota by Veolia Environmental Services on behalf of NHDC, with recycled waste collected one week and general waste in black bins the other.

Charles Dillingham spoke to the Comet about the situation on behalf a number of residents at the sheltered housing sceme, which is run by North Hertfordshire Homes.

The 78-year-old said: “There was rubbish piled all over the place for three weeks until they came and collected it on Friday and who’s to know the next time they’ll visit.

“I’ve told North Hertfordshire Homes to increase the frequency of collections several times but nothing gets done. It started to smell before it has been collected in the past and that will attract rats and other pests.

“The bin men refuse to pick anything up that’s on the floor and there was rubbish all over the floor last week. By the time we’d put everything from the floor in the bins they were half full so it won’t be long before they’re overflowing again.”

Andrew Buchan, head of care and support at North Hertfordshire Homes, said: “We understand that the Sax House bins were emptied on Friday. However, we have had regular problems with the removal of recycled materials and food waste at some of our retirement living schemes.

“One of the problems is that the frequency of collections is not sufficient for the quantity of waste generated by multiple households. There have also been issues with waste being put in the wrong bins. We are working with Veolia to educate our tenants on the correct use of bins, but if the build-up of recycling continues to be an issue, we may consider asking Veolia to locate the bins elsewhere.”

Cllr Peter Burt, NHDC’s portfolio holder for waste and recycling, said: “We have been made aware by North Hertfordshire Homes of some issues regarding bin collections at Sax House in Letchworth, including incidents of some waste being put into the wrong bins.

“More recently there have been issues with access to the properties by the collection crews, however we have now revisited the properties and the bins have now been emptied.”