FRUSTRATED residents say the new waste and recycling system has got off to a rubbish start after garbage was left strewn across streets.

People living in Meander Mews and nearby Reed Walk in Colchester, just off Cowdray Avenue, have always piled up rubbish together because of the layout of the homes to make things easier for refuse collectors.

But when they arrived on Tuesday to find the pile, refuse officers only took a number of the bags away – enforcing Colchester Council’s new strict three bag per household rule, even though there was no way of knowing which waste belonged to which home.

The remaining piles of rubbish were then left overnight and were attacked by birds and foxes leaving rubbish strewn across the street.

Ernest Marsh, who lives on Meander Mews, said he spoke to refuse collectors about the issue only to be told they were only following orders set out to them by council chiefs.

Mr Marsh said: “What is going on is just ridiculous.

“We have always piled them up together because of the way the roads are laid out it works better.

“It is quite confusing and we always have problems with postmen and other tradesman trying to find the right house.

“The collectors are not going to go wandering right up to the doors with the way things are.

“I always put mine out in the morning to stop the foxes getting to it about two hours before they tend to arrive and I saw mine being given a green label.

“I only put out one bag.

“I went out and spoke to them and to their credit they were extremely polite and told me they were only following orders.”

More than a dozen bags were left in small piles around the street following the collection.

Mr Marsh, 73, said he was concerned the bags would be left on the street before the next black bag collection in a fortnight and feared the issue would only get worse.

He said: “Now there are lots of bags left there and they are going to be around for two weeks.

“This was the first day and it is going to be chaos.

“They absolutely cannot run things like this. Somebody needs to get this sorted out.”

Residents have reported a three day delay in even getting a call back from council officers when trying to arrange a larger wheelie bin or an exemption on the three bag per fortnight collection rule.

Others have said they have found it difficult to arrange to pick up green recycling boxes from centres in Rowhedge or Greenstead and said communication on the telephone with council officers has proved difficult.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said he would be forced into taking extra bags to a recycling centre to avoid falling foul of the the new three bag limit.

The plans, brought forward by previous waste boss Dominic Graham, and now headed up by fellow Lib Dem Jessica Scott-Boutell, started on Tuesday and are designed to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

That, it is hoped, will, in turn increase the amount of household waste which is being recycled.

The majority of homes in the borough will still see black sacks with non-recyclable waste collected but fortnightly.

Some 12,000 homes have been given a wheelie bin for their household waste and another for garden rubbish.

Food waste collections will continue every week and separate types of recycling will be taken on alternate weeks throughout the year.