RESIDENTS were furious after their recycling was not collected for almost 20 days.

Brighton and Hove City Council blamed "an unexpected absence of drivers and loaders" for the lack of service.

Andy Winter, chief executive of homeless charity Brighton Housing Trust, was one of those affected and contacted the council on Twitter to voice his frustration.

On January 13 he said: "Very disappointed that our recycling has not been collected. Now ten days overdue.

"Also our normal refuse not collected today. Assurances given but not delivered. Now poor communication makes matters worse."

The following day a council spokeswoman responded and said he could report a missed collection online.

Mr Winter replied: "I have reported missed recycling for over a week now and had promises that it will be collected 'by the end of the day'.

"That was last Wednesday. Still no collection.

"Hopefully the normal refuse collection for the whole area will be done today."

The spokeswoman said: "I'm really sorry to hear this Andy, sounds extremely frustrating.

"If you give me your location, I could send a message directly to the team and see if I can get an update for you."

Mr Winter responded that he had sent the council a message earlier that day but had not received a response.

He said: "Recycling and refuse still not collected. The failure to receive this basic service for well over a week, and the poor communications over the last week is really not good enough."

The next day, the council spokeswoman replied and said a collection was due to be done over the weekend, January 18 and 19.

But, on Sunday, Mr Winter said it had still not been done.

Another council spokesman responded the next day.

He said: "We're very sorry to hear this.

"We’ve had a high level of unexpected absences of drivers and loaders the last few weeks.

"We’re doing our best to catch up, so please bear with us."

But Mr Winter said action needed to be taken.

He said: "I wouldn’t be making this fuss if this problem wasn’t ongoing (and) compounded by promises of collection dates that are then never honoured.

"Please don’t apologise any more.

"It doesn’t make any difference if the cause of the problem is not addressed."

He revealed the recycling was eventually collected on Wednesday, more than 18 days late.