It is becoming known as the second summer of discontent: Thousands of Brighton and Hove people are fuming as the rubbish piles up.

The refuse mountains are beginning to rival last year's chaotic scenes as binmen struggle to cope with the reorganisation of their rounds.

Some streets have been split in two by the shake-up with one side getting regular clean-ups while the other sinks under a tide of filth.

The city council has added to the confusion. Leaflets sent out warning some residents of collection day changes were wrong.

The city bins' hotline has been overwhelmed and frustrated householders turned to The Argus in desperation.

Many have not had their bins emptied for three weeks. The black sacks spilling over the streets are now being attacked by vandals.

Dustman Les Gibbs, of Flimwell Close, Brighton, got so fed up waiting he picked up all his neighbours' rubbish himself.

Father-of-two Mr Gibbs, 43, a refuse collector based in the city centre, said: "I spent the day working out there. Some of it I had to rebag myself because the seagulls had been at it."

Mr Gibbs, who has worked as a dustman for 12 years, said he would probably be disciplined for talking to us about the problems but added: "Like anyone else I pay my council tax and I'm cheesed off. I can see the problem from both sides."

Journalist Jeremy Head moved to Richmond Place, Brighton, two months ago. He waited more than 17 days to have his rubbish collected.

He said: "I had my first council tax bill for Brighton and it was far higher than what I had to pay in London. So far I am not impressed.

"This city is filthy. All along the main road at the weekend traffic is queued up and there are bags of rubbish piled up."

Gwen Phillips, of Swanborough Drive, Whitehawk, said neighbours where she lived had not had their rubbish collected for almost two weeks.

She said: "We are now into our second week of non-collection of rubbish. The dustbin area is stinking to high heaven with rotten rubbish.

"I've rung the telephone line and the lady has said we will be put on the emergency list. This is so typical of Brighton and Hove City Council. We are fed up with excuses."

Ted Winslett said the dustmen arrived yesterday afternoon to collect 16 days of rubbish left by the residents in the block of 14 flats in which he lives.

Mr Winslett said: "It really stank and it was almost full when they came to collect it."

Even the Rev Kenneth Lynch of the Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, has been calling the city council every day for more than nine days.

He said: "We had the same problem last year. We run a cafe here and it's piled up outside the kitchen."

A spokesman for the city council said refuse staff were working flat out to collect rubbish.

Steve White, the city's cleaning manager, said: "Despite a large number of complaints there's really only a small percentage of bins being missed.

"I would like to thank residents for their patience. We have redistributed the workload so all crews have about the same number of homes to collect from. The crews are working very hard."