A WOMAN from Mark, near Highbridge, has not had her recycling collected in three months, despite numerous complaints to Somerset Council.

Kate Carmichael, who describes herself as 'very disabled', is supposed to have assisted collection of her recycling, from her back garden.

"The back gate is always left unlocked," she said.

Despite eleven complaints made to the council, and numerous false promises that SUEZ, Somerset Council's contractor, would collect her excess recycling within 48 hours, Kate's garden became littered by three months' worth of empty bottles, cardboard, and plastic containers.

"My back yard looks like the local pub have been using it to deposit their empties," she said.

"I can't even safely get to my shed."

Pictures taken by Kate's carer show the extent of the build up.

Somerset Council has apologised on behalf of SUEZ for the 'poor service'.

A Somerset Council spokesperson said: “Waste collections in Somerset are carried out on our behalf by our contractor SUEZ Recycling and Recovery.

"More than 380,000 collections take place each week and whilst most run smoothly we understand that sometimes factors may prevent a collection taking place as expected.

"It’s not acceptable that anyone goes without a collection for multiple weeks and we apologise for this poor service.

"We have worked with SUEZ to ensure this is resolved and that collections take place as scheduled.

“If residents’ waste collections are missed, they can let us know online via: www.somerset.gov.uk/missed-collection.”

SUEZ attributed the issue to the new recycling routes which were implemented earlier this year.

They also apologised for the situation, and stated it has now been resolved.

A spokesperson for SUEZ recycling and recovery UK said: “We would like to apologise to the household affected by the missed recycling collections.

"Earlier this year we conducted a wide spread re-route in the west of the county which came with a few challenges as the new crews got to grips with their new routes.

"This specific issue has now been resolved and the residents have been provided with extra containers for their recycling and our crews know where to locate them during their rounds”.