RESIDENTS in Hutton Rudby have accused Hambleton District Council of providing a sub-standard waste collection service.

About 200 people have signed a petition demanding changes to the wheeled bin system introduced last year.

They say that by changing collections from weekly to once a fortnight, the district council has made the situation worse because the bins are not big enough to hold two weeks' worth of household waste..

Residents are also furious that they had to wait 15 days for rubbish to be collected over the Christmas and new year period and that a proper recycling policy has not been introduced.

Phil Stokes, of Doctors Lane, Hutton Rudby, said there had been a substantial number of complaints regarding the service

He said: "People have complained to Hambleton District Council by telephone, but the staff respond by saying that there have not been any other complaints. Council officers actually visited the village and met some of the householders who had complained."

Mr Stokes said Hambleton had introduced collections of green waste, but believed this was merely a way of meeting Government targets without having to implement other recycling schemes.

He said: "The current policy is reliant on householders taking plastic and bottles to Stokesley, where the bins are often full."

He also called for the district council's assisted collection scheme to be reviewed and implemented further to include properties that do not have wheelie bin-friendly drives or access.

He added: "Overall, it is difficult to see HDC withdrawing the wheelie bins, but we are fed up with comments made by our district councillor who insists that we are a difficult village.

"It is obvious that councils across the country are all implementing this new system, which must save money and enable an increase in recycling.

"We all support theses initiatives; what we are annoyed about is that Hambleton has used these initiatives to reduce the standard of the service."

Eric Kendall, Hambleton's head of environmental health and housing, said the district was trying to site a recycling station in Hutton Rudby as a priority, but there was a problem with finding a location.

He said: "We have had discussions with the parish council and the pubs in the village, but they don't want recycling facilities on their land.

"We are looking to purchase some land to do it, because it's ridiculous that a village the size of Hutton Rudby does not have its own recycling station."

He said the Christmas refuse collections had been affected by there only being three working days between the holiday periods, and strong winds on the Saturday after new year had caused further delays.

Mr Kendall said the change from weekly collections to fortnightly was intended to make people control their waste more effectively and to encourage more composting and other recycling methods.

Despite this, he said household waste collections had returned to weekly at the beginning of December and would continue until February 14. This was due to less demand for green waste collections during winter.

He added: "We have legal targets to meet in reducing landfill. If they are not met, the council will be fined and that cost would have to be passed on through council tax."

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