Brown bins have been left uncollected in the North Herts area for more than a week – causing some to brand the situation “a load of rubbish”.

Residents from across the district – who have paid the £40 charge for garden waste collection, or £35 discounted earlybird fee – have told the Comet that not only has their bin not been collected on time, they do not know not knowing when new contractor Urbaser will fulfil the service they pay North Herts District Council for.

Pensioner Barbara Hardy, who is originally from Shillington and has lived in Hitchin since 2007, told the Comet: “My bin was supposed to be collected Thursday and it wasn’t, and I am so frustrated with it all.

“I could forsee problems with this from the start because they couldn’t even put the bins back properly before the charge and now they have the new technology to see who has paid for it came in so of course there would be more problems.

“Fortunately I live with my son and he has a car, but it is the elderly generation having to deal with this on their own who I feel sorry for.”

District councillor and St Ippolyts resident Sam Collins said: “The situation really is a load of rubbish.

“The failure to collect bins has been blamed on ‘teething trouble’, but frankly it is not like the new contractor did not have adequate time to prepare for this.

“Bin collections have been missed right across North Herts and it is simply not acceptable.”

Councillor Michael Weeks, executive member for waste and recycling at NHDC, said: “Waste collection services went well under the new contract during the first week in the majority of the district, however with new collection services starting on 14 May, there have been some issues in certain areas of North Herts with collections of brown garden waste bins and the food waste collection service.

“This is in part due to some data errors in our IT system and in part due to collection crews having to learn new collection routes.

“NHDC officers and Urbaser staff are working hard to resolve these issues and are confident that they will be resolved shortly, enabling services to return to the normal collection schedule.

“In the meantime we apologise to residents for any inconvenience caused.”

Anyone who hasn’t had bins collected should report it at www.north-herts.gov.uk/home/waste-and-recycling/missed-bin-collections.