Furious villagers have complained to the council after it refused to collect some of their waste bins.

This follows changes made by Stroud District Council to waste collection, but one man, Paul Young, said that he was "not informed or given notice of the changes".

“They refused to collect my bin because apparently it is three inches too wide,” he explained.

"Before the changes to waste collection were made our bin was always accepted. It was an official council bin.

“I do not see why I should have to take my rubbish to the dump, especially when I was given no notice that my bin is no longer acceptable.”

He argued that other neighbours in Leonard Stanley have had similar problems, and that they have had no letters from the council to prepare them for the changes.

However, the council say "our records show that he was in fact sent a letter."

In response, the council have reiterated that he did not put out the standard bin.

"That bin was part of a trial in the Stanleys ahead of our hugely successful waste and recycling service which was then rolled out across the district," said a council spokeswoman. 

"When the trial ended all participants were written to and offered the larger bin for their own personal use, but they were told it is not for waste collection.

“We collect refuse from a standard 140-litre bin, so waste that is put out in any other bin, as happened in this case, may not be collected."

Despite the compromise, Mr Young says that the council have been picking up his bin for four years.

“The whole road has been affected by the changes, we should have been sent letters beforehand,” added Mr Young.

“I’ve now got two bins full of rubbish.

“They've said they would collect it on multiple occasions, but they haven’t.”

Following the dispute the Stroud District Council have said: "We've now agreed to collect Mr Young’s non-standard bin and remove it to avoid future confusion.

"When we launched our waste and recycling service two years ago we chose a smaller sized waste bin to encourage residents to recycle more and send less waste to landfill.

"This strategy has been embraced by residents across the district to such an extent that Stroud disposes of the least amount of residual waste to landfill or incineration of all local councils in England."