OVERFLOWING bins have gone unemptied since Christmas.

Angry residents are dismayed to discover the communal bins in Whitehawk Road piled high with food waste dirty nappies and Christmas packaging, but despite multiple complaints to the council they have remained unemptied.

Annoyed Michael Chell contacted The Argus after his complaint about the bins fell on deaf ears.

He said ward councillor Gill Mitchell had promised to resolve the issue last week - but only rubbish beside was cleared but had been cleared.

When The Argus asked about the situation the council's communication's department initially forgot what we had asked about.

When they remembered they could provide no answer as to why the bins had not been collected or when they would be.

Mr Chell said: "These recycling bins have been full since Christmas. Since Sunday, rubbish dumped around them has been cleared away, but the bins themselves have not been emptied.

"These bins are down the side of the Co-op on Whitehawk Road, in Henley Road.

"I reported the problem to two of my local councillors, Warren Morgan and Gill Mitchell on Monday.

"I told them the recycling bins were overflowing

"I am demotivated from using recycling bins because most times I go over to them, I find that there is non-recyclable rubbish in them, and this means that if I add my recycling to them, all the effort I have made to separate recyclable material from landfill waste is of no value, as the whole lot will end up in landfill anyway.

"Councillor Mitchell wrote back very promptly and said "I will get those communal recycling bins emptied as a priority”.

"I reported this to her again on Wednesday, but still no action.

"It would be interesting to know what proportion of recycling collected ends up in landfill or being incinerated rather than recycled, either because of contamination or because of Council contract requirements.

"It would be interesting to know what proportion of recycling collected ends up in landfill or being incinerated rather than recycled, either because of contamination or because of Council contract requirements."

Henley Road resident Janine Williams added: "It is disgusting. there's dirty nappies and food waste and all sorts falling out of the bins.

"Where are people supposed to put their rubbish if the bins are full?

"It's not like it's just a couple of says after Christmas, everyone else has got back to work since the holidays so why cant they sort it out?"

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: "Senior managers are aware of the complaint and are looking to get any necessary remedial action sorted as soon as possible.”