FUMING residents are still suffering from a backlog of bin collections as council officials warned another cold spell could worsen the delays.

Brighton and Hove City Council again pushed back its promise to clear the city’s overflowing bins as people complained of further problems.

In Bevendean, where bins were finally collected after three weeks of mounting up, litter including dirty nappies was left spread across the street.

In Hollingbury, crews picked up the bin bags piled up next to household bins –but left the full green wheelie bins.

In Hove, where refuse collections had been on track, crews missed collections completely on Tuesday.

Cityclean has been struggling to deal with the volume of complaints, with residents unable to get hold of anyone on the phone, by email or social media.

Communal bins in Durham Close, Bevendean, were collected for the first time in four weeks yesterday but resident Mark Tudge said he was left to tidy up two bin bags full of the rubbish left behind.

Mr Tudge said: “They finally came out to collect them today for the first time in three weeks, but they left so much behind.

“I went straight after them and confronted them, but they said they wouldn’t pick up the rest.

“If they are not doing their jobs, what is the point in having them?

“Myself and a neighbour ended up clearing two black sacks of what was left behind.”

A council spokesman said: “Waste and recycling collections in most parts of the city are now back to normal, but a recent spate of vehicle breakdowns and staff shortages mean we are still catching up in some areas.

“We are hoping to have everything back to normal by the middle of next week, but collections could further be disrupted by our drivers having to grit the roads first if snow which is forecast for the weekend happens.

“In areas like Bevendean, our street cleaning crews are monitoring the situation and cleaning as much as possible, and an extra team will be deployed over the weekend to check those areas for litter and clean up where needed.

“Keeping our city clean and litter free is very important to us, and we’d like to apologise for the inconvenience the backlog and missed collections is causing.”

The council blamed the snow for the delays to collections but residents said they had been fed excuses over delays for weeks before the bad weather.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for snow on Sunday with temperatures set to dip to minus 2C on Sunday.