A RESIDENT has been taking matters into his own hands by cleaning up rubbish after three weeks of no bin collections.

Darren Ward jumped into action after feasting seagulls left rubbish strewn across the courtyard at the flats in Brentwood Road, Brighton.

Mr Ward, who has lived at Framroze Court with his wife Sharon for the past 10 years, said he cleaned up the mess for the good of the community.

The Argus: Framroze Court had been without bin collections for three weeks.

The council have blamed the delay in collecting the rubbish on Covid-19 and Brexit, apologising to residents.

Mr Ward said: “Five o’clock in the morning, the seagulls will be having their breakfast out there and waking us up.

“The rats and the foxes as well, they come and have a little go on it, try and reduce the rubbish pile for us.

“The look of it is disgusting, the smell means we have to close windows in hot weather.

"We have had to put up fly paper in every window in our flat.

“The safety aspect of it is unbelievable.

"You don’t know what diseases and stuff is hanging around down there.”

The Argus first reported on overflowing bins at Framroze Court on July 23.

And Mr and Mrs Ward claim that there have been no collections in the last three weeks.

Mr Ward added: “This is the thing that spoils where we live, not just me and my wife and my kid. The whole lot of the people.

“It spoils it for all of them. You see them walking out of their flats and their heads just drop.

"We do have elderly and disabled people in the flats and it’s just dangerous."

The Argus: Framroze Court had been without bin collections for three weeks.

The council said that they are facing difficulties due to many factors, with staff shortages due to people self-isolating as well as taking their annual leave.

However, Mr Ward said waste collection had been irregular the whole time the couple have lived there.

He said: “For the whole ten years, when they’ve come and eventually collected the bins and taken them away, it’s so bad down there that I have had to clean it up myself.

“And I did that for eight years, then they started collecting regularly so I didn’t have to do it a lot. I take a broom and shovel downstairs and clean it up myself.

“I’m not insured and I’m not paid to do that job, I just did it for the people here in these buildings.

The Argus:

“Children go down there and play, they don’t want rubbish everywhere when they’re trying to play.”

The Argus contacted the council about the problem yesterday morning.

The three-week old pile of rubbish was removed during the afternoon and an apology was issued.

A council spokesman said: “We’d like to apologise to the residents of Framroze Court for the missed refuse collections.

“We’re currently facing unprecedented difficulties due to due to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 and Brexit. We’re very sorry for the disruption.

 

“We’re working hard to get cover and catch up all missed collections as soon as possible.

“We’re asking residents to leave out any missed recycling and rubbish collections and we’ll pick them up as soon as we can.

“Our staffing shortages relate to high Covid-19 case rates, with staff sickness and many of our staff having to self-isolate, alongside annual leave.

“We’re finding it difficult to recruit staff or bring in agency staff who are facing similar problems. There is a national shortage of HGV drivers following Brexit.

“Brexit is also causing delays to replacement parts if our trucks break down.”

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