A COLCHESTER resident is bemused after binmen gathered his street’s rubbish, dumped it on his driveway and left it for a week.

Ian Oxborrow, 30, put his black bags and clear plastic recycling rubbish out for collection outside his Apprentice Drive home as usual the night before his regular collection on Good Friday.

As he left for work in London that morning, he saw his recycling had been picked up. But he returned to find his and his neighbours’ black bags and been collected and left blocking his driveway.

Because of the Easter holidays, father-of-one Mr Oxborrow waited until Tuesday to contact Colchester Council and was told an “urgent” message would be passed to the authority’s waste collection team.

But the rubbish, which had been ransacked by foxes and was becoming increasingly smelly, was not picked up for nearly a week.

Mr Oxborrow said: “We have a lot of foxes around here and the rubbish has become a problem. It’s just a stinking mess.

“The woman I got through to was very sympathetic, but sympathy doesn’t magic away the rubbish bags.

“She said she would forward on my issue and tagged it as urgent, but the council’s idea of urgency is clearly different to mine.”

He added: “They left it on my driveway and in my garden, and they left a lot of it. It stinks and it’s a big mess.”

The rubbish was finally picked up on Thursday evening after 6pm, after Mr Oxborrow contacted a Mile End councillor.

Colchester Council did not respond to requests for a comment.