Christmas collections have bin rubbish

Lisa Davies-Unger, 45, called an animal welfare charity to lay down traps after bins were not emptied for three weeks

Kirklees Council Christmas collection times have meant that some people in Dewsbury and Mirfield went up to four weeks without a grey bin collection.

Mrs Davies-Unger, who runs a small childcare service at her home in Nab Lane, Mirfield said: “You can imagine the stench with all those nappies building up. I nearly died.”

Despite living on the street for almost 20 years and the allotments nearby, Mrs Davies-Unger has never seen a rat in the area before

She said: “We saw the rat climbing over the seven foot fence with some scraps of food in its mouth.

“It was huge – I didn’t realise rats were that size.”

Mrs Davies-Unger said she was unable to make a trip to a tip herself as it would mean leaving the children she cares for unattended

“We had to be extra careful with traps and poison lying around – the children were unable to play outside for two weeks,” she added.

“Over the holiday period I don’t have as many children, but we’ve still had to make alterations to our plans.

“Luckily, thanks to the goodwill of neighbours and friends, we managed to get rid of everything.

“We took as much as we could and the bins were still full – but it was disgusting.

“With three weeks worth of nappies and scrap food building up, it was a yucky job.”

But when her bins were collected last Monday, only the bags inside the bin were taken away. Her husband resorted to taking the bags that had piled up around the bin to dump at work.

A council spokeswoman said the council would arrange to collect any excess rubbish from Mrs Davies-Unger’s home. Collection dates for Christmas were attached to bins prior to the holidays and gave details of all the dates of collection.

Reporter readers have had their say on our Facebook pages. Jilly Martin said: “Over Christmas and new year is when you will probably use your bin the most! Thankfully we have been able to take rubbish to the tip but if we didn’t have a car I don’t know what we would have done.”

Danielle Connolly said: I live in lower Hopton by the canal and honestly I worry about rats with all that rubbish – I also have two babies in nappies. It’s disgusting to be honest and I have no idea what we would have done if we didn’t have a car as we have been able to take what we can to the tip ourselves.”

But Louise Osborne felt people should take more responsibility. She said: “Give the bin men some slack will you! Everyone had a collection over Christmas and new year whether it was green or grey bins, so you should check when they were coming.

“Keep up the good work lads.”