BIN men have failed to collect rubbish from a house in Christchurch for five weeks in a row.

Stephanie King, of Stony Lane in Burton, said the council had failed to collect her bin nine times in the last 10 months and now the situation has deteriorated further.

Stephanie, who lives with her severely handicapped 37-year-old son, said the council always apologises and sends refuse trucks out to collect her rubbish a few days later, but that it is becoming tiresome to continually chase them to do their job.

“After a couple of days it can really begin to smell bad,” she added. “My son is incontinent – his nappies are in there and it is not a nice thing for people to have to walk past. The council’s staff are always very nice to me and say the problem will be sorted, but this has been going on for a long time now and nothing has been done.

“Twice I have had to just take the rubbish to the tip myself.”

The bin is clearly visible and just inches from the pavement at the end of her driveway and the full-time carer said she has repeatedly given the council instructions of where it should be collected. Stephanie has resorted to travelling to Christchurch council’s office to use their telephone to report the failed collection to Dorset County Council so she is not spending additional money on phone bills.

She added: “How much must it be costing them to send out another lorry to collect just my rubbish all the time?”

A Dorset Waste Partnership spokesman said: “We previously agreed to provide Mrs King with an assisted collection from inside her boundary.

“However, it would appear that some confusion has arisen around the agreed collection point and the bins have not been collected on a number of occasions. We have now apologised to Mrs King and have returned to empty her bin.

“A supervisor will visit Mrs King next week to confirm the collection point and the crew will be given specific instructions to collect from this point in the future.”