ELDERLY residents in Weymouth have slammed their housing provider and the Dorset Waste Partnership after, they claim, their bins were emptied just once in 13 weeks.

Residents of the Green House housing complex on Bedford Road, which only opened three months ago, said the communal bin area where residents put their individual rubbish was too small and was a health hazard due to overflowing rubbish.

There are 20 flats at Green House, which is owned by Synergy housing, part of the Aster Group, and two communal bins and 14 recycling bins are kept in a padlocked compound that requires a code to enter.

Cyrill Gill, 90, a resident in one of the flats, said: “The rubbish is overflowing out of all the bins; it’s all on the floor and the smell is disgusting.

“I am 91 next year and I don’t see why I should take my recycling to Morrisons when I should have the bins where I live.

“We don’t seem to be able to get anything done about it. Everyone is annoyed about it, the stink is terrible.”

Rosalind MacGregor’s flat is next to the bin compound. She said: “We have been here for 13 weeks and they have only emptied the bins once.

“That is not good enough, it is a health hazard. I’m on the ground floor next to the bins and it got to the point where I couldn’t open my windows because the smell was so bad.”

Mrs MacGregor also called for more bins at the housing complex.

She said: “There are 20 flats in the development and only two communal bins, we really need four bins. They need to be emptied on a regular basis, once in 13 weeks is a disgrace.”

Rose Malcolm, also a resident in one of the flats, said: “The compound smelt really bad, when I opened the gate I couldn’t believe it. It got to a point where I didn’t want to take my rubbish out, I was keeping it in my kitchen so I didn’t have to go out there. Bags of rubbish were everywhere, on the floor, on top of the bins.

“I don’t know if was rats or seagulls, but it had got everywhere and it was dangerous.”

A spokesman for Aster Group said they had sent workmen to remove the overflowing rubbish earlier this week.

The spokesman said: “Although there were some initial problems with the bin store these issues were quickly resolved and we’ve received no recent reports of them reoccurring.

“Two bins have been allocated for the bin store and regular collections are made from them by Dorset Waste Partnership.

“This is the standard number of bins for a development of this size and should be sufficient for our customers’ needs.”

Karyn Punchard, Dorset Waste Partnership street scene manager, denied the bins had only been emptied once. She said: “To begin with the bin store did not have gates, so we provided a padlock as well as two communal bins, which have been emptied regularly. “We will be talking to Synergy and residents about their needs for recycling and individual bins and will be happy to work with them to resolve any problems that exist.”