01-08-2025
Shirley residents fury as bins not collected for five weeks in a row
Residents of a retirement housing block in Shirley have told of their anger after their recycling bin collection was missed by council collection crews for five weeks in a row.
Those living in the 69 flats at Latham Court on Endeavour Close, Shirley, have spent the last few weeks piling cardboard, empty milk cartons, Amazon parcels in their overflowing bin stores - with some residents being forced to start collecting the recycling in their own flats.
The recycling has not been collected for five weeks (Image: NQ) Resident of Latham Court for 17 years, Dawn Cooper, 80, said: "We have been missed once or twice before but have never been left as long as five weeks.
"We have well over 100 residents here who are all getting rather concerned and frustrated that are bins are not being collected.
"Even tough the waste is recycling we have started to see flies, maggots and ants in our bin stores.
"Our building manager has spent every day on the phone to the council and twice we have been told it will get collected on Monday - with it again being missed both times."
The recycling has not been collected for five weeks (Image: NQ) The residents said they wanted the piles of recycling shifted as soon as possible.
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Another resident, Doreen Cattermole, 87, added: "Another issue is that when new people have moved in they have a lot of cardboard boxes and rubbish which has only made the problem worse."
The recycling has not been collected for five weeks (Image: NQ) Southampton City Council have apologised to residents of Latham Court and said it has made sure that the block will not be missed by collection crews in the future.
A spokesperson for the council said: 'We're aware of the recent issues with bin collections at Latham Court and we apologise to residents for the inconvenience caused.
"Our crews have now emptied the bins and we've put additional monitoring in place to make sure collections happen as scheduled moving forward.
"There have been some staffing challenges in the team recently, but we're working hard to maintain a reliable service for all residents. We appreciate everyone's patience while we put things right.'
