FAMILIES are angry that they will be left with overflowing rubbish bins as Rossendale Council will not be collecting general waste from some areas for three and a half weeks.

Residents have said they do not know how they will cope with the build-up of household refuse caused by changes to bin collection routes in the Valley.

The usual fortnightly collections have been interrupted by the council’s changeover to the new area based system, which will see towns have bins emptied on different days of the week from October 7.

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For instance, areas in Helmshore and Rising Bridge, which last had their green bin emptied on Tuesday, will not have it cleared again until October 17, and residents in Balladen who had their collection on Wednesday will not have one again until October 16.

Jake Berry, Rossendale’s MP, said: “I live in Rossendale and like everybody else pay my council tax and expect to have my bins collected regularly.

“It is completely unacceptable for the council to leave some local families with overflowing bins for nearly a month. Quite frankly, this decision stinks.”

Coun Darryl Smith, leader of Rossendale Conservative group, said: “This will potentially cause a lot of problems, especially for families with young children using disposable nappies, and people are concerned.

“This should really have been dealt with better by the council, informing people of the issue and offering them help if they need it.”

A Rossendale Council spokeswoman said: “During any re-organisation of refuse or recycling collections, it is inevitable that some residents will witness changes to days of collections. As part of the roll out of area based working some residents will wait longer than their usual cycle of 14 days between collections for either waste or recycling.

“Where possible we ask residents to manage any additional waste which will be collected alongside normal wheeled bin waste on their new collection day in order that the new round implementation is as successful as possible.

“Additional support will be provided for any resident who is unable to manage additional waste during the mobilisation period by contacting the number in the leaflet.”