Flats residents say 'disgraceful' overflowing bins and rats are making their lives a misery

Rats, overflowing bins and rubbish building up inside homes are said to be making some city dwellers’ lives a misery.

Residents of flats at The Drive, Peterborough, say they’re fed up of their communal bins not being emptied when they are deemed to be ‘contaminated’.

They claim this is a recurring issue caused by a minority of residents binning the wrong items. And they say it is one that has now attracted rats - some of which have taken to nesting inside cars parked nearby.

Some are calling for Accent Homes, which manages the 72 flats in the scheme, to do more to permanently address the issue.

However, Accent say they have been “working hard” to address the situation and educate tenants on how to dispose of their waste correctly after some ‘contaminated’ bins were rejected by Peterborough City Council. They have also offered to work with residents to identify those who continue to ‘misuse’ the bins.

“It’s a revolting mess,” said resident Wendy Dyer, 81. “It’s like living in a pig sty.

"It got so bad two weeks ago, that you’d open the bin lids and rats would come shooting out. I’m 81 and disabled, I don’t want to be faced with a large rat when I open the bins.

“The problem is some of the residents here are not following the instructions on disposing their waste. Some are not even bothering to flatten the boxes before putting them in recycling.

“In my little flat I’ve not got three shopping bags full of rubbish which I have nowhere to put as the bins are full. I have just had enough now, I don’t want to live like this anymore.”

To compound the situation, residents are charged extra on their regular service charge when Accent Housing has to arrange for a private re-collection of the contaminated bins.

"Why should we have to pay extra because some people aren’t recycling properly?” Wendy asks.

Neighbour Paul Harrison said the recycling bins had not been emptied ‘for months’ adding: “It is a health problem as dirty nappies are on the floor as well as food waste which attracts a lot of rats. Over the last two or three years this has been a [recurring] problem - the normal bins are not right either, there is a filthy mess around them. It’s a disgraceful situation.

"Rats are nesting in car engine bays. I have had to replace my plug leads as a rat chewed through them!”

Accent have visited the flats to give additional information on how to dispose of their waste correctly. The bins themselves are also clearly labelled with instructions.

"They came out to give residents this information,” adds Wendy, “but the trouble is we often can’t dispose of it correctly because the bins are overflowing.”

Wendy said there are eight large green communal recycling bins, and eight silver bins for general waste. They are meant to be emptied fortnightly by the council’s Avalon service.

The Telegraph visited Wendy on Friday (August 16) and photographed the bins. However, by the following morning Accent Housing had arranged for the overflow of rubbish to be removed. Then on Monday a private contractor arrived to decontaminate them.

But the problem persisted. On Wednesday this week Mr Harrison added: “The recycling bins haven’t been emptied again this week even after they were de-contaminated. It was bin day today. The residents who put the right rubbish in the correct bins should not have to suffer this because a few residents don't care, and non residents dump rubbish as well.”

A spokesperson for Accent Housing said: “We are very sorry that customers have experienced a delay in the emptying of their communal bins. This is due to the council not being able to remove contaminated waste. A third party contractor has been engaged to undertake the removal of all waste, and our team has been in daily contact to hasten this service.

"I can confirm that the bin store has been cleared, and the bins are now waiting to be emptied by the council on their next scheduled collection day.

“Unfortunately if the bins are unable to be removed by the council, Accent arrange for separate collection which is re-charged to residents. We will continue to work with our residents to educate about recycling and appropriate usage of the bins, and with the council, to resolve this issue.

“We are working hard to ensure this situation does not arise again. Our Housing Partner has already engaged with customers and helped educate about the importance of sorting waste and recycling appropriately. Partnership work with the Recycling Education Coordinator at Peterborough City Council has been appreciated, as well as implementing new bin signage and the introduction of recycling bags to deter contamination. Accent are collaborating with the council to introduce lockable lids on the recycling communal bins which will prevent future contamination issues, as well as a number of other initiatives.

They added: “We would like to work with customers to identify the few perpetrators who are continuing to misuse the bins, and encourage everyone to report each instance to our Housing Partner so we can take further actions against the individuals involved. Our team will continue to engage with all customers, including further visits and on-the-ground presence.”

The residents of The Drive are not alone in having their bins repeatedly rejected for being ‘contaminated. As we reported last month, thousands of bins across Peterborough are rejected each year for the same reason.

A spokesperson for PCC said: "Aragon has attempted to carry on our service as normal, but this has been delayed by the need for contamination/excess waste removal, which Aragon would not do without an additional charge being incurred. We have started work alongside the housing partner to put measures in place to hopefully alleviate the problem for the future."