CALLS have been made for town hall bosses to ‘get their act together’ after recycling bins were not emptied.

Residents of Walmsley Street in Darwen were due to have their bins emptied on Monday.

Walmsley Street resident, Ronald Thompson contacted Blackburn with Darwen Council, who informed him the bins had been left because they were ‘contaminated’ with non recyclables.

The 67-year old said: “Half the street are having problems with their bins, it’s ridiculous, the council need to get their act together.

“I rang them on Tuesday and asked why the bins hadn’t been emptied and they said they were contaminated.

“I went to check and fair enough, there was one that had a bag in.

“But I couldn’t understand why they had left all the bins when just one of them had a bag in it.

Mr Thompson contacted Darwen Mayor Roy Davies who inspected the bins and confirmed to the council that all but one had been filled correctly.

He said: “They rang me back on the Wednesday to say they were going to come and collect mine.

“I asked if they would be collecting everyone else’s as well and they said only mine would be collected because I was the only one who had complained.

“So I put my neighbour on the phone and they told him he would have to wait until next time they came round – it’s laughable.

“By Thursday evening no one had been, so I rang them again and they said someone would be round on Monday.

“I told them it’s dangerous, what if there’s a fire? Are the firemen going to move the bins to get to the hydrants?"

Mr Thompson said it had become an ongoing issue for Walmsley Street residents since bin collectors began using a different vehicle.

He said: “The wagon can’t get down the street so the bin men have to drag the bins to the top of the street to empty them.

“The problem is, they aren’t bringing them back down.

“There are people on this street who are elderly and disabled.

“I’m classed as disabled myself and am having to go up and pull the bins down for them so they don’t have to go up themselves."

“It’s just getting beyond a joke.”

A spokesman from Blackburn with Darwen Council said: “The street was collected but some bins were not emptied as they contained mixed rubbish.

“The crews can have difficulty reporting some bins that they can’t empty in back streets where the address is not on the bin.

“The crew will be returning to collect the bins.”