Frustrated residents of a retirement and sheltered housing scheme had to wait for five weeks to get their bins emptied – despite calls to St Albans council.

Rosewood Court residential home in Grovelands, Park Street, comprises 35 flats with two bin areas but weeks went by without any sign of a refuse collection.

Resident Michael Thompson said that as a result of the non collection, recycling had ‘gone out of the window’ with residents having to use whatever bins had spaces in them.

He phoned the council last week and was assured that the bins would be collected. When they were not, he phoned again on Tuesday but spent so much time hanging on that he called the Herts Advertiser.

Michael said: “We have had some trouble before when our collections have been forgotten but this time has been exceptionally long.”

A spokesperson for the district council confirmed that the recycling collection scheduled for last week had not taken place because the designated collection vehicle was being repaired. The recycling had now been collected and arrangements were being made for an alternative vehicle to be used to collect recyclables in the future.

She added: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused and for any difficulties in making contact with the team here.”