Five months of bin misery and more to come. That is the claim from residents despite the council stating that workers are catching up with bin collections.

Brighton and Hove City Council has announced that eight of its bin lorries were out of action earlier this week and householders have been left aghast at claims that bin collections are nowonly
days behind.

They say that over the past five months they have suffered infrequent or nonexistent collections but the council expects to be back on schedule by the end of the weekend.

Ray Farrow, 65, of St Aubyns said: “They must have got their calendar wrong around here then. Since December our bins have not been collected unless we actually call them up and remind
them.

“Trying to get Cityclean to come up with a solution is like climbing a mountain. We had
to keep bullying them to get our rubbish collected.”

Mr Farrow said the communal recycling bins in St Aubyns were yesterday emptied for the first time in six weeks. John Pope, 74, who lives in Shaftesbury Place, added: “It’s getting worse rather than better.“

I am tempted to take my bins right up to the front door of Cityclean. Our streets look like a complete tip.

“Is it part of the refuse collection service to have the herring gulls come and rip the bags apart?”

The council reported that having the eight refuse collection vehicles out of commission at the start of the week has caused delays in Hangelton, Mile Oak, Hove, south Moulsecoomb and Whitehawk.

The city council has a total of 45 vehicles in the fleet. Geoff Raw, executive director for environment, development and housing, said: “We are making major changes to refuse and recycling collection services to improve the efficiency of the collections and to provide more opportunities for residents to recycle.

"As the changes take effect we are experiencing some disruption to services and this is being further affected by vehicle breakdowns. This is affecting communal recycling collections as well as others.

“The council’s refuse and recycling teams are working hard to catch up with missed collections and we apologise to residents experiencing problems.”

The council nowreports that six of the eight vehicles have been repaired and crews are working late concentrating on picking up outstanding refuse.

But the GMB union says the problems go much deeper. Mark Turner, Brighton and Hove GMB branch secretary, said: “The vehicles off the road and the ageing fleet is not the crux of the issue. In October five vehicles were taken off the road as part of the new round, and now the workforce is underequipped and there is just too much for them. This is a management issue, not a workforce one.”

The council has recently purchased new vehicles, with the first two due to be delivered in July and another 11 between September and October.

Each vehicle costs between £150,000 and £185,000. Councillor Andrew Wealls, of the Central Hove ward, said: “It is clear that either collections are not frequent enough, or facilities are insufficient.”

“Please can the council get a grip, respond to residents when they complain and sort out this
mess? We have had enough.”