Piles of rotting rubbish have haunted a local barbers for 12 years, with people living locally using the front of the shop as a dumping ground.

Solano in Victoria Road in Harpenden says residents regularly dump their rubbish in front of the shop before collection day, leaving it to rot in the street.

Commercial waste is collected from restaurants twice a week, but their wheelie bins are not taken back inside until the afternoon, which attracts extra rubbish from passers-by and residents.

The illegal dumping is due to confusion about collection days, which differs between restaurants and flats.

Tony Solano, owner of Solano, said: “It’s not their fault. The people living in the flats change every six months so they don’t know any better, and the restaurants don’t open until the afternoon, so are not there to clear the bins in the morning.”

Local residents only have their rubbish collected once a week, but leave bags out next to the restaurant wheelie bins, which adds to unwanted littering from the public.

“I think they should put out a big wheelie bin for people to put their rubbish in during the week; it would help with the mess and smell,” Tony added.

Tony is in contact with the council regularly, but has not yet been offered a permanent solution to the problem.

He said: “I just want the council to do something. We ring up all the time, but after two or three tries we give up. They have been and cleared it a few times, but that’s all they can do.”

Debbi White, property and asset Manager at St Albans council, said: “As a council we only collect waste from residential properties and do not collect commercial waste. Commercial businesses have to make their own arrangements for waste to be collected.

“Our refuse collection crew did not collect all of the waste left outside a barber’s shop in Victoria Road, Harpenden, on Monday as some of wheelie bins were owned by commercial waste operators and the black bags contained builders’ rubble, also commercial waste. We have made arrangements for these black bags to be collected as fly-tipped waste following an inspection by a waste officer.

“We will monitor the situation at this location.

“We will be visiting residents and businesses in this area to explain to them our procedures for collecting waste and the consequences of fly-tipping.

“Fly-tipping is a criminal offence and we take action against offenders when we have sufficient evidence to do so. Fly-tipped waste is inspected for evidence prior to collection.”