A WINSFORD woman has described having to chase rats away from her property at night because her bins have not been collected for eight weeks.

Residents have described Cheshire West and Chester (CWaC) Council’s new waste collection service as a ‘shambles’, with complaints that bins are too small and unhygienic.

The council argue the new system will save £50 million over the next 14 years, and extra bins are available for free to those that need them.

29-year-old Jenni Marsh of Willow Square said vermin had been swarming on an outside staircase and landing connecting flats behind McColls newsagents on the Bradbury Road Estate.

“The cats have ripped the bins open and the bin men won’t take them. They haven’t cleared our rubbish away for eight weeks. We’ve got rats on the landing. We can hear them at night. We’re always having to go out and chase away random animals,” she said.

Instead of receiving black bins, due for delivery in May, she said she had had been ‘stunned’ to receive leaflets advising residents they would be evicted if they were caught fly-tipping waste.

“Can you believe that? One of my neighbours has got babies. It’s a health hazard. These rats will bring diseases and germs.”

Tony Ollier, 66, of Rosewood Drive said new food waste bins were too low to the ground, enabling dogs and cats to break into them.

“The bins just aren’t big enough. I don’t know what the council are thinking,” he said.

Susan Collier of Aston Avenue added: “It makes no difference that you can lock the lid down. You can’t close the lid anyway because it isn’t big enough to fit everything in. It’s a total shambles.”

Of the new black household waste bin she said: “It will not hold a fortnight’s waste. I had my bins collected yesterday and I’ve already got two bin liners in it.”

In a statement, a CWaC spokesman said one kitchen waste bin would ‘provide adequate space for the vast majority of households.’ They added that swapping to the new system was a ‘significant logistical task.’ The statement continued: “The Bradbury Rd estate was moved to the end of the exchange programme to allow targeted awareness raising to take place, all brown bins and excess green bins have been now been removed.”

Weeks-old waste, however, remains to be collected at the Bradbury Road site.