A WEYMOUTH resident has hit out at Dorset Waste Partnership after missed collections meant rubbish was strewn about by seagulls and she had to make regular calls to get it cleaned up.

Margaret Lane, 57, lives in Chapelhay and says she is fed up with battling the Dorset Waste Partnership over rubbish building up by her flats.

Mrs Lane lives at Chapelhay Heights and says that every fortnight since November she has had to call up DWP to come and collect missed rubbish and recycling collections.

She said the communal bin area for the flats had rubbish overflowing as there is nowhere to put it and seagulls had been ripping open bags and pulling out rubbish, making the problem worse.

The bins are near the washing lines and near the area children use to play Mrs Lane said.

She said that each time she complains about missed collections on a Friday DWP say it is to do with access issues and then arranges to collect the missed collections on Wednesday.

Mrs Lane said there was the same amount of traffic and parked cars in Chapelhay on a Friday as there is on a Wednesday.

The bins had not been emptied for nearly a month. DWP has said they will be trialling collecting the rubbish on a Wednesday to stop the access issues and if the trial is successful, then the times will be changed permanently.

Mrs Lane said: “I recently hung my washing out at the farthest washing line from the bins and you could smell it. I’m absolutely fed up of it.”

She added: “The seagulls get into it and throw it all over the place.”

Mrs Lane said the flats were private rents and said she had had enough, adding: “Why should we have to live like that? It seems like we’re treated differently to everyone else.”

A spokesman for the Dorset Waste Partnership said: "We're sorry that Mrs Lane's bin has not been emptied when it should have been. The problem we face on a Friday in Chapelhay is that our crew cannot pull the large domestic rolling bin Mrs Lane uses to the truck without risking damage to the numerous cars parked in and around the turning area.

“The Wednesday collection Mrs Lane mentions is for trade waste, and deals with fewer, smaller bins.

“It also calls at Chapelhay earlier in the morning, which is why our Friday crew will be changing the time it goes to Chapelhay Heights this week, to see if the parking situation is different, making it easier to get the rolling bins to the truck and emptied.

“If that proves to be the case, we'll be looking to change the times permanently."