Gardener kept waiting months for waste sacks

4:04pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

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By Andy Woolfoot »

A KEEN gardener has been kept waiting for months for her garden waste refuse sacks because of a series of errors by Cotswold District Council.

Heather Wood, who lives in Stratton, Cirencester, originally applied to sign up to the council's new waste scheme in November, requesting the option of the sacks over the green bins.

Despite being more than willing to pay the £30 annual fee, the 63-year-old claims the council repeatedly ignored her and has called up monthly to pursue her application.

In the meantime Heather, who suffers from arthritis, has been forced to lug her garden waste up to the tip.

"It is absolutely ridiculous," she told the Standard. "This whole new waste scheme has been a complete fiasco.

"They bring in this new scheme and here I am trying to participate and they just ignore me. Once I can understand but I have spoken to four or five different people and they can't sort it out."

The £30 annual charge for people who want to have garden waste collected was introduced by CDC in October with the hope of increasing the district's recycling by up to 20 percent.

Many people criticised the scheme saying they would be effectively paying twice for the same service.

Heather added: "At the moment when I mow the lawn I put it in a plastic bag and put it in the bin, although I can only do this until the summer when they will be picking through the bins looking for just this type of thing."

A CDC spokesperson said: "Mrs Wood has signed up to the green garden waste service and an invoice has now been sent to her address by the council.

"We'd like to apologise to Mrs Wood for any inconvenience caused by the delay. The council has received thousands of requests for this recycling service so it is understandable that the odd one will get lost in the system."

Have you had trouble with your new garden waste bins or refuse sacks? Post your comments below