A FRUSTRATED West Oxfordshire resident said she may have to burn her rubbish after bin collection changes led to 'chaos'.

West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) changed its contractor at the start of the month, and residents have since complained about missed collections, with some going weeks at a time without their bins being picked up.

Sylvia Bence, from Payne Farm Cottages, Swinbrook, said she was so fed up with the system that she was going to make a bonfire with her refuse.

She said: "If they don't come soon, we're going to take all the rubbish to a field and burn it, then we'll invite all the neighbours round for a bonfire."

Mr and Mrs Bence's recycling should have been collected twice this month, but has only been taken away once, but their food waste and household waste has not been collected at all.

Mrs Bence added that she and her husband Mike ring the council every day to complain of missed collections, and every time are told they will be collected within the next three working days.

She added: "One time, we got completely fobbed off by the council, it didn't even take our details down."

"We live out in the country.

"We have private sewage and water. We pay council tax of £144 a month just for our bin collection and we're getting nothing."

Mrs Bence's neighbour, Angie Parker, also expressed her frustration at experiencing exactly the same collection problems.

She said: "Our food waste collection went two weeks without being picked up and it's become overrun with maggots.

"We live on a farm and every bin is chock-a-block full, which we can't have with the animals around."

"I just wonder what we're paying our council tax for.

"If we don't get it sorted soon I'm going to bag it all up and take it down to the council offices in Witney to see how they like it.

"We've rung every day since October 2 and we just keep getting fobbed off."

The council began its contract with Ubico on October 2.

WODC is a shareholder in the refuse collection company with other local authorities.

Carol Reynolds, cabinet member for environment, who looks after refuse collection, said: “We are aware that some residents have experienced missed collections in the first couple of weeks of the new service and have then had unacceptable delays in their waste being collected.

"We are working closely with our contractor Ubico to identify all the issues and additional resources have been allocated to ensure any missed collections are dealt with as quickly as possible and problems are not repeated.

"We are asking residents to bear with us whilst they catch up as we are confident that our usual high level of service will resume shortly.

"We are very sorry and apologise to those affected and ask that any missed collections are reported to us on 01993 861025 or by emailing enquiries@westoxon.gov.uk."