RESIDENTS of two Wroughton streets have said enough is enough after going months without a regular recycling collection.

They say that since April, the trucks that come out to pick up their recycling boxes visit every street but then miss out Overton Hill and Coombe Close.

The frustrated householders say they are fed up of phoning the council and being given the same lines and now say it is time something is done.

Julie Rousell, who lives in Coombe Close, said: “We’re getting sick and tired of it.

“I’ve phoned up, I’ve made complaints and so have all my neighbours but nobody fixes the problem.”

The residents, some of whom have lived in the area for 25 years, say that until April they never had any issue with their recycling collection.

Indeed, they still don’t have an issue with the collection of their household rubbish, their green waste, or their plastic recycling bags – it is just the truck sent to collect the boxes that has decided to leave them out.

Diane Richardson, also of Coombe Close, said: “All we ever get is excuses – the van has broken down, we were short staffed, we ran out of time.”

However when the residents can stand in their homes and hear the bottles and jars clanging in the boxes as they are collected in adjacent streets, they struggle to believe the reasons they are given.

When enough people complain that the fortnightly Monday collection has been missed, the council do send a replacement van to collect the boxes.

However these collections can happen at any time from the following day right up to the Saturday.

Gladys Davis, who lives on steep Overtown Hill, worries about having to leave the boxes out endlessly to make sure they’re collected.

“We have steep stairs up to our properties and there is no pavement,” she said.

“You can’t put the boxes on the road because they will block the cars but you can’t put them inside the gate line because they won’t touch them there.

“We end up having to put them on the stairs and when you have children going up and down it is dangerous.”

Fed up with being given questionable reasons from the council helpline, one resident took the matter directly to the driver of the truck as it went along a nearby road.

“I asked them if they were going to go up Overtown Hill and Coombe Close but they said that it wasn't on their rota,” said Jeanne Howland.

A spokesman for Swindon Borough Council said: “This is one of those strange anomalies as Coombe Close is clearly marked as being on the route for the recycling crew that cover this particular part of Wroughton.

“We can only apologise to the residents have been affected for any inconvenience caused. We will ensure we address the problem so that collections run as smoothly as possible in future.”