Problems with council waste collections since a switch of contractors are far from over.

This week, residents at Hayle Mill in Tovil near Maidstone were thankful when the new contractor Suez finally emptied their bins after a four-week hiatus. The bins are supposed to be collected weekly.

The company and the council have come in for repeated criticism over missed collections in Maidstone, Swale and Ashford since SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK took over from Biffa in March.

Tony Hemsted is a resident in one of the 42 properties created by the conversion of the former Hayle Mill paper mill. He is also the chairman of the residents’ management company.

He said: “The problem appears to be because we have the large commercial bins, rather than domestic wheelie bins.

“They require a different collection vehicle. But it also has to be a small vehicle because of the narrow lane we live on, and it seems Suez only has one.

“This is the third extensive glitch we’ve suffered. The first time it took us a month just to get onto their commercial bin-emptying schedule.”

“Another time, we were missed for a month because we were told the vehicle had problems getting an MOT.

“For the last four weeks, we have had no collections - and this time we haven’t heard the excuse.”

Mr Hemsted said: “Our bin store became completely full and really smelt.

“I and many others had to keep our rubbish bags in our back gardens because there was simply no more room.”

Mr Hemsted said that one of the most frustrating things was trying to report missed collections to Maidstone council.

He said: “They have a website which is only geared up to the domestic round. It keeps telling us our next collection will be on Tuesday - the local wheelie bin day - no-one seems to realise we are on commercial bins.

“Our collection day is supposed to be Friday. It is very frustrating.

“With the previous contractor, there were occasional problems, but I had a number that I could ring to get it sorted out. There seems to be no such number now. I just want to have a point of contact.”

But there is another problem.

The residents at Hayle Mill have no recycling facility.

Mr Hemsted said: “This was the same under Biffa. All our rubbish has to go in the same bins. It’s very disappointing.”

That disappointment was shared by Hayle Mill resident John Kirkham.

He said: “I lived here for 10 years and diligently separated all my items for recycling. I was pretty annoyed when I discovered it was all going in the same bin.”

A spokesman for Maidstone council said: “The council apologises for any delays with the collections from these properties, as the communal bins are scheduled to be collected weekly.

“The only report the council has received of a missed collection in the last four months was on August 20, prior to that a report was received in April.

“Any missed collections should be reported to the council within 48 hours by telephoning customer services on 01622 602600 or by using the MBC website here.

“MBC will investigate the separate recycling collections as these should be available and collected every two weeks.”