Furious homeowner hailed a hero for response to council over £152m bin row

A furious homeowner has been hailed a "hero" - after he erected a sign outside his house, tallying the number of days since his rubbish was last collected.

Andy Duffus has recently set up the counter - previously used as a countdown to his wedding day - for the second time in just a few months. The 51-year-old's sign, displayed outside his home in Sittingbourne, Kent, now marks 30 days since the last collection.

It comes after the introduction of a new £152m waste collection contract that has wreaked havoc across the county for weeks.  Kent residents have expressed feelings of neglect after waiting up to six weeks for their bins to be emptied.

As temperatures rise, Mr Duffus warns that if his bins are not collected by the weekend, he will be forced to dispose of his and his elderly neighbours' rubbish at the local dump himself.

"We are on 30 days today (Weds, June 5)," the civil engineer vented. "When the council first changed the contractors we went 21 days without a collection."

"After 17 days, I put my sign up. We went another 21 days without a collection and I was about to put my sign up again when they did a collection."

"Before me and my wife Becci got married in June 2022 we had a counter that counted down the days until our wedding day.  We were discussing the bins and my wife, Becci, said, 'How funny would it be if we made a giant counter for the bins? '."

"So I made a larger scale counter from the wedding counter and it drew quite a bit of attention.  We've had a few people beeping when they see me changing the days."

"They say, 'We've not had our bins taken in X amount of days'.  The big collection now is once a month instead of every week.  "It's ridiculous."

Suez Recycling and Recovery UK took on a new £152m contract that started on March 25 and will run for eight years.  The Mid-Kent Waste Partnership comprising Swale, Maidstone and Ashford councils promised the new providers would improve reliability, reduce environmental impact and provide a more efficient service for the close to half a million people living under the authorities.

However, many fed-up residents have now resorted to paying for their rubbish to be collected by private contractors.  Residents are asked to leave their bins at the end of their drive, but father-of-four and stepfather-of-two Mr Duffus says many of his elderly neighbours are unable to do this.

"We're in a little village and, because all the bins are overflowing, there's rubbish flowing all up the roads," he said.  "It's terrible. I get home every day and think, 'Have they been emptied? '."

In response, Swale Borough Council acknowledged that 'elements' of its new waste contract 'have not gone according to plan' and extended an apology for the inconvenience caused to residents.

A spokesperson ssaid: "We knew there were going to be teething problems, as there always are when undertaking a large change, but the service being provided was not to the standard we, nor our community, expected.

He further added: "Although the majority of residents have received the correct scheduled service, we are continuing to work with Suez to resolve any outstanding issues."

 "Collection crews have also been working incredibly hard, undertaking catch-up rounds over the weekends, and Suez has also been bringing in additional resources to assist with the collection of everyone's refuse."

"We understand your frustrations and thank you for continuing to bear with us while we settle into this new service."

However, he stated: "We won't tolerate abuse towards council or Suez staff" following reports of refuse workers being spat at.

The spokesman added: "We are sad to say we are receiving reports of binmen being sworn and spat at, and call centre staff being spoken to in an unacceptably aggressive manner and verbally abused."

The council encourages residents to report missed collection on its website within two working days of the scheduled service, reassuring that it 'reads and listens' to all complaints.