'˜At wit's end' as missed Rye bins '˜causing' rat problem

Lesley Taylor, of Rope Walk, is fed up by Rother District Council’s (RDC) ‘diabolical’ refuse service which often does not empty her bins.

This is exacerbating an already serious rat problem on her road and Ms Taylor said she is so tired of reporting missed collections she offered pay for it herself.

The policy that you must report missed collections by 5pm the next working day to rearrange it is also a cause for concern for Ms Taylor.

“I do not have the time to check that the bin is taken – it just should be taken as that is what we are paying for,” she said.

“I have asked on two occasions if I may pay privately to have my bins taken and deduct from my council tax, they say no, I have to have their service, or rather non-service and pay.

“This is dictatorship. I, at one time, had a direct number for a man in the rubbish collection department because he was so disgusted himself at the service, but he has long gone.

“I am at my wit’s end!”

Ms Taylor said her lane has a continuous rat issue and RDC claims the vermin are her problem and she should deal with it.

So she went to Southern Water as she was concerned about water contamination. The company checked the sewers and found the rats, before baiting and getting rid of as many as they could.

“The non-collection of rubbish is really adding to this problem if not totally responsible for it,” she said.

Ms Taylor has lived on Rope Walk for 20 years and has had issues with non-collection since the new bin system began.

But with the new policy for organising returning to collect the refuse, she often misses the deadline due to being out which means she has to wait until the next week.

It all came to a head on Tuesday, February 16, after Ms Taylor’s bins were not emptied the day before but it was too late to organise a re-collection.

“Despite I do not know how many ‘it will not happen again’ responses I have had, the rubbish has not been taken,” she said.

“When I went on their computer complaints site, they had taken down the facility to email a complaint as I was out of their ‘so many hours to complain’.”

An RDC spokesman said: “We are aware of the issue of missed collections at this location and have been working with our contractor to address this as a matter of urgency to prevent it happening in future.

“The vast majority of collections made in the district are completed on time but we do understand the frustration caused when this doesn’t happen and on behalf of ourselves and the contractor we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience.

“We ask people to let us know as soon as possible of any missed collections, but they do have until 5pm on the next working day following the scheduled collection, which usually allows sufficient time for people to notify us so we can arrange collection and the contractor is able to return to collect.”

Southern Water has been contacted for comment.

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