A COUNCILLOR has told how his own bin was left unemptied on the hottest week of the year, as more tales of failures by Serco emerge.

Cllr Colin Regan told Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s scrutiny meeting that his bin, along with his neighbours, was not emptied by the waste collection crew in the summer, when temperatures reached 38 degrees.

“In the hottest week of the year, our grey bins in my square were not emptied,” he explained, adding: “I rang up as a resident. I said it’s 30 degrees out. It’s grey bins and the flies are having a feast. It’s an environmental hazard.”

The following day he phoned up the council as a councillor, but said he still received no positive response, adding: “Meanwhile there were flies and bluebottles and the temperature increased to 34 degrees and it started stinking even more.”

Two days later he was informed the bin crews were unable to access the square, and the council had communicated with residents.

But Cllr Regan said there was no communication, adding: “I was rather embarrassed.”

He said he “pleaded” with the council when temperatures reached 38 degrees, saying: “I said ‘come and clear the bins because it’s a health risk’, but it was completely ignored. I did make a formal complaint in the end. But the health risk was never addressed, and the lack of communication with residents - there was none whatsoever, it was quite appalling and embarrassing to me as a councillor.”

Other councillors also spoke of being inundated with complaints from residents, including those who need assistance to take their bins out.

Cllr Paul Harvey said residents were “despairing”, adding: “They ring up the contact centre and get nowhere.”

He told the committee about an 85-year-old man who uses the assisted collection service, saying: “He came to our surgery two weeks ago. He walked all the way from Freemantle Close and he’s on the assisted scheme and he has literally had no support for a good couple of months. And his bins were not in a good state as you can imagine, and he came to share it with us.”

Cllr Harvey wrote to council officers explaining the situation, and said the response came back saying the man has steps at his property which was a problem.

Cllr Harvey said: “Yes, it is a problem, it’s a problem for an 85-year-old widower who can’t get his bins up the steps to be collected in the first place, and we are telling him we’ve got a problem with his steps to get his bins collected. It is beyond crass that that is this council’s response to that resident’s request for help and assistance to collect his bins, which have always been collected under Veolia, but it’s gone pear-shaped under Serco.”

Cllr Janet Westbook described there being “real anger” amongst residents in Popley East.

Referring to visiting an area where bins were left full for nine weeks, she said: “We were shocked to see overflowing bins, general waste all over the floor, 1,100 litre recycling bins piled high with general waste simply because there was nowhere else to put it. The bin store was full of flies, full of maggots, which you would expect after that time and it was 31 degrees in the summer heat. Despite us chasing this issue every single day it took close on another two weeks to be cleared.”

Cllr Laura James told how she visited an area where the bins were not collected, saying: “I have never smelt anything so awful. It took us as councillors four or five weeks to get that removed. People living above the bin store couldn’t open the windows because the smell was so bad there were rats and maggots.”

She added: “The service is very poor; it’s not working and it’s consuming us as councillors with case work.”

Responding to problems with assisted bin collections, leader of the council Cllr Ken Rhatigan said letters were sent to those using this service to check it was still required, but said some had not replied.

As previously reported in the Gazette, he also admitted that things had gone wrong with the waste collection service after Serco took over the £44m eight-year contract in October last year.