A FRUSTRATED resident has released CCTV footage of binmen walking past his rubbish because it was not close enough to the kerb.

Footage shows a Cityclean worker emptying his neighbours rubbish before walking past his bin, even though it was just an "arm's length" away.

The video shows that his bin was close to the pavement outside his home in Mill Rise, Brighton.

After contacting Cityclean by email, he was told by one of the customer service team that “the crew wouldn’t have collected the refuse as it wasn’t on the pavement.”

Brighton and Hove City Council have since apologised and organised for the bin to be collected.

The resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I got a reply saying the reason it wasn’t collected, nothing to do with the guy misunderstood or just walked straight past your house, it’s because your bin is not on the pavement.

“He didn’t even look at my bin, he had no intention of emptying my bin, or he didn’t realise he was supposed to empty my bin. That’s my thought process.

“I just didn’t like being lied to or being given the fob off [by the customer service staff].

“If I left my council tax at arm’s length from the pavement, would they collect that?

“They get their money automatically, they are guaranteed to get the money, so they don’t have to provide the service. That’s what I find very frustrating.

“My bin is clearly in arm’s length of the pavement, always has been. It’s been there for ten years and they’ve been taking it for ten years.

The video follows a number of reports to The Argus of delays in bin collection across the city.

The council have blamed these issues on Covid-19 and Brexit, apologising to residents.

The resident added: “I’ll accept that, but when they do finally come to your street, it’s just very frustrating when they don’t take your bin.

“If they put their hands up and said ‘we have made a mistake, we will try and remedy that. If we can’t do it this week, we will certainly do it next week’ – that would have been an acceptable response.

“But to make it look like it’s my fault is not going down very well.”

Brighton Council apologise for missed collection

The council website says that you should “put your wheelie bin on or by the pavement at the front of your property, less than an arm’s length from kerb's edge with nothing in the way, by 6am on collection days - crews won't climb walls, open gates or access steps.”

A council spokesman apologised and said arrangements were being made to empty the bin.

He said: “The bin should not have been missed and we will be raising this with our teams.

“We are also contacting the resident to apologise and are arranging for the bin to be emptied.”

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