Resident at his ‘wits end’ with rubbish contractors Serco

Bill Nicholls, of Haddon House Farm, Bakewell, has been forced to call the company and arrange a special garbage collection every time his property has been missed.

Now at his “wits end” with the situation, Bill turned to the Mercury in a bid to resolve his problem permanently.

“I have lived here for 23 years and have never had any problems with my rubbish collections – until Serco took over that is,” said Bill.

“I pay my rates and I expect a decent service. But having to call up to arrange special collections – at what cost to the public, I don’t know – is just not on, they are absolutely useless.”

Adjacent to Bills farm – which is only metres from the A6 – are a block of council flats which have not had their bins emptied either.

Bill said: “At times the rubbish has been overflowing at the flats. Cats have got in the bags, the rubbish has spread and I’ve even seen rats around for the first time.”

Serco have apologised to the affected residents for “any inconvenience caused” and have described the situation as an “isolated problem”.

“There was an issue identifying the point of collection for all the wheeled bins that required collecting. We will be monitoring this property from now on,” they added.