A GRESFORD resident has been left fuming about mountains of recyclable waste that has been left outside for almost a week – attracting bad smells and maggots.

Andrew Price, who lives off High Street and Lake View in Gresford, has been left feeling angry after a week-long issue with Wrexham County Borough Council about the missed collection of 25 houses worth of recycling.

He said: “It is absolutely disgusting. After a while, the food waste from our grey boxes have started to attract maggots and contribute to the ongoing issue of rats in the area.

"The piles are so high and wide that they have started to take up some of the available parking space in the street – which is limited at the best of times.

“I am also rather annoyed that our council have been informed about the situation on more than one occasion – including by my own wife – and seem to be doing not much about it.”

Mr Price told the Leader how black and green bins are collected in his street on an alternating basis, but recycling is gathered every week – apart from last week when the council failed to collect the recycling waste after gathering up the main household waste from black bins.

Mr Price added that living in a street with about 25 homes that have piles of food, plastic and cardboard has caused additional problems to the area in a short space of time.

“If it was just one box or bag forgotten then it would not be a major issue, but multiply that by 25 and you can see why we are not happy in the slightest. The boxes are not water-tight so any rain may have rendered the material contaminated anyway and food boxes wouldn’t be hard to get into either for a passing rat – not to mention the maggots.”, he said.

Mr Price added that he has raised the issue with his local councillor, Andrew Atkinson, and spoke highly of what his the Gresford representative did to try and help rectify the situation.

He said: “This is not a dig at Andrew in any way, he is very helpful when it comes to all sorts of issues in the village. I have been in contact with him throughout the process and Andrew is just as frustrated as we are by the whole issue. We communicated through emails and I showed him pictures of the decomposing food waste and the mountains of recycling boxes.

“After being told by the county council that the waste would be collected on Monday, and that failing to happen, I emailed Andrew again. On Tuesday, the bin men returned to collect the waste but had come for general waste and not recycling so have left the rubbish once again.

“It will now have been a full week since the missed collection as they are coming on Wednesday as usual. I hope they are prepared to take all the waste this time.”

A spokesman for the council said: "The initial collection was missed due to access issues – however, the matter has now been resolved."