A HOUSING association has been told to clean up its act amid claims tenants have not had their rubbish collected for FIVE weeks.

Residents living in Thomas Benold Walk in Colchester are calling on Peabody Housing to remove a large pile of waste which has been building up in the communal bin area over the past month.

Tenants say the contractor responsible for removing the waste refused to take away the bags when the container overflowed. The rubbish has continued to pile up ever since and despite complaints being made to Peabody, no action has yet been taken.

Resident Laura Oliver, 25, said: ”It’s absolutely disgusting, it feels like we have just been left to do it ourselves.

“Everytime we tell them about it, they always say they will sort it. But they have still done nothing about it.”

The situation has become so bad, Colchester councillor for Berechurch Dave Harris (Lab) took it upon himself to remove 60 bags of rubbish from the pile.

Mr Harris says he has been in contact with the housing association about the issue and was reassured two weeks ago the rubbish would be removed.

He said: “I reckon there was easily about 120 bags there in total. In the end the pile got so big you couldn’t close the door in the storage room.”

He added: “It’s a huge health hazard and I’m sorry if the housing association doesn’t like me removing the rubbish on my own, but it can’t be left there just to rot. It’s disgusting.

“There’s loads of tenants living there and they are the victims here. They pay their rent and they deserve to have their rubbish collected just like everyone else.”

A Colchester Council spokesperson, said: “Unfortunately we have been unable to collect recycling and rubbish from numbers 13-21 in Thomas Benold Walk for five weeks as we have been unable to access the communal bin area during this time.

“We are keen to get this issued resolved and have been in contact with the management company, Peabody Housing, about this matter several times and have informed them we cannot clear the bin store area until access is restored. Once Peabodyadvises us the area is accessible, we will clear the excess recycling and rubbish.”

A Peabody spokesman said: “We understand that this is an unpleasant situation for residents and apologise for the delay in resolving the issue. We are arranging for the urgent removal of the excess rubbish so that the council can resume bin collections.

"It appears that people who should not have access to the bin store have been disposing of their rubbish irresponsibly.

"Our neighbourhood manager will be making arrangements for the bin store to be secured so that only our residents at Thomas Benold Walk will have access.

"This will hopefully prevent the issue recurring. “