A Codicote resident has resorted to chasing a bin lorry and blocking its route to have her food caddie emptied after multiple missed collections.

The Comet: Evelyn Haley's food bin is regularly missed on collection day. Picture: DANNY LOOEvelyn Haley's food bin is regularly missed on collection day. Picture: DANNY LOO (Image: ©2018 Archant)

Evelyn Haley, who is registered disabled, followed the crews up St Giles Road – where she lives – carrying her full food caddie.

She said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous, I’m having to phone almost every week to get the bin emptied.

“I had to chase them down the road with my food bin and stood in the middle of the road with it.

“Each week is different – one week they’ll pick one bin up and leave another.”

The Comet: Evelyn Haley's food bin is regularly missed on collection day. Picture: DANNY LOOEvelyn Haley's food bin is regularly missed on collection day. Picture: DANNY LOO (Image: ©2018 Archant)

Evelyn has blood clots in her thighs and feet and walks with a limp due to numbness.

She said it was the “last straw” when she called Urbaser’s customer services and an operator put the phone down on her.

“I must have been on the phone to them more times than anyone,” she said.

“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve phoned, I’m thinking of just giving up reporting to them since the last time the person hung up on me, that was the final straw.

“I shouldn’t have to be doing this to have my bins emptied.”

Evelyn does not pay for the garden waste collection service, and says she had planned to sign up to it but has since changed her mind due to the level of service.

The 51-year-old continued: “There’s people that work for the money to pay for that service that’s absolutely appalling.

“I wanted to opt-in for the brown bin collections, but I don’t think now that’s something I would do.”

An Urbaser spokesman said: “Having looked in to the matter we can confirm that we have unfortunately missed this property on four occasions.

“The property is allocated to the collect and return service. We have flagged the property as a priority for the crews to ensure collections are made, confirming when completed.

“With regards to the staff member in question this was a temporary contact centre operator and in light of this incident we have ended their engagement with Urbaser.

“We acknowledge that incident has fallen short of the standards we expect from our staff and have taken steps to prevent a reoccurrence. We expect all of our staff to be polite and courteous when speaking with members of the public.”