FED-UP residents on an Ilkley street have rubbished Bradford Council this week - for failing to pick up the refuse.

Householders on West Parade say their wheelie-bins often go unemptied for more than a week, leaving them overflowing with rubbish.

"Every so many weeks they just don't empty the bins" complained Margaret Milner. "The excuse is that they can't get down the road because of parked cars. But they can't just not empty the bins - they won't hold two weeks' refuse. And if it's overfull they won't empty it."

Residents at the narrow entrance to West Parade place their bins behind their homes to be emptied. But at the bottom of the road, residents must leave their bins at the front. Refuse workers say parked cars at the narrow end prevent them emptying those bins.

"It's happened about four times in the last few months," said Mrs Milner. "I have rung Bradford Council but they never come until a week later. It's ridiculous.

"Some of my neighbours have got cars so they can take rubbish up to the tip. I can't but this is not the point. If they forget or don't bother to empty the bins they should make them come back next day."

She said refuse workers had been rude to her when she had tackled them over the issue. "They are not a very friendly lot and not helpful at all. On one occasion I asked them why they hadn't been the week before and I got was a shrug of the shoulders as if to say 'well, who cares'."

Neighbour Clifford Ramsden, 77, said he had noticed problems whenever there was a Bank holiday. "It was a Bank holiday last week and somehow or other they didn't get round to us," he said. "We always used to have this problem - what's gone wrong again? All we can do is ring up or wait until the following week and hope they will come."

Another resident in her 70s - who did not wish to be named - said her rubbish was mounting up and she had no other way of getting rid of it.

"What do people like me do if they don't come? I haven't a car to put the rubbish in and carry it away. I have a chest complaint. It's not the first time it's happened."

And Mrs Milner questioned why a smaller truck couldn't be used. "They'd have no trouble getting in with that or they could take the bins to the truck but that's too much trouble for them. It's not as if they are overworked."

District Councillor Martin Smith, cleansing boss at Bradford Council, admitted that irregular emptying of bins was a problem throughout the district.

"One or two issues like this are cropping up. It's not the service that the customers are paying for," he said.

"The present state of play is that when they can't get the wagon up round the cars, they only walk up half the street because, according to the union, that's the 50 yards they are supposed to do.

"They should use their initiative and have a bit better customer care and understanding."