People are fuming after their bins were not emptied for nearly a month.

Hyde Housing Association, which runs Sealand House in Strood, installed metal doors on the block's communal bin stores which are only accessible using a fob.

But the firm forgot to provide Medway Norse, which looks after the Towns' refuse collections, with any fobs.

Susan Jones, who lives at Sealand, said she and other residents had tried contacting Hyde, as did Norse and Medway Council, but did not hear anything for more than three weeks.

The 66-year-old said: "The communication is terrible. Half the time residents do not know what is going on.

"We have now got an environmental and fire issue. We have really now become extremely fed-up with the way we are treated."

All residents share the communal bin store which Susan said was "overflowing" due to the amount of rubbish building up.

Tony Morgan, Hyde’s head of housing, said: "I’d like to apologise to our customers for the delays in their bins being collected.

"We replaced the bin doors as we wanted to improve waste management at Sealand Drive.

"Unfortunately, we omitted to send a copy of the fob for the new bin stores. As soon as we were made aware that Medway Norse was unable to access the bin stores, we ensured that they received keys. We have also suggested that in future, if the bin store is inaccessible, Medway Norse contact us immediately.

"We also encourage our residents to always let us know if there are any issues that need to be addressed so that we can act promptly."

The store has been improved, Susan said, but she said she and others had been left disappointed by the service from Hyde and it took them too long to act.

She added: "It has not been a good time. The residents do not have a voice. I have had enough. I do not want to deal with this any more."

A spokesman for Medway Norse said: "This has been resolved. The landlord had indeed changed a set of locks and waste crews have been unable to gain access.

"The new fob was given to the crews and so the bin store is being cleared."