A PENSIONER from Worcester twice reported a missed waste collection in his street – but almost a week later is still waiting for the bin men to arrive.

Keith Turner, of Infirmary Walk, has been left “frustrated” by the incident and fears the piles of rubbish will attract vermin.

The 72-year-old, and his neighbours, put out their green bags of recycling for collection last Friday and despite telephoning Worcestershire Hub the council’s teams had still not turned up by 4pm today.

A Worcester City Council spokesman apologised for the missed pick-up but stated the rubbish was scheduled to be collected today in line with its usual turnaround times.

Mr Turner said: “No wonder there are rats and mice in the city when things like this happen.

“I can’t understand why people don’t do what they are supposed to do.

“It agitates me and I feel as though somebody should stand up and say something about it.

“They need to get the bags moved as soon as possible because they are piling up and smelling.

“Elderly people live around here and the bags are getting in the way.”

The aggravated resident has also been less than impressed with the telephone service provided by Worcestershire Hub.

He claims he was on-hold to the customer service line for 45 minutes this morning to chase up the collection and has previously faced similarly long wait times.

“Every time you ring up it says ‘your call is important to us’, but how can this be true if they don’t answer the phone”, added the pensioner.

Mr Turner’s road has alternating waste collections, with recycling picked up one week followed by general waste the next.

A spokesman for Worcester City Council, which is responsible for waste collections, said: “We apologise for the missed collection, which does happen occasionally.

“We are sorry when this occurs but we always do our best to ensure the waste is collected as quickly as possible.”

He added that the council’s normal working standard is to catch up with missed collections within three working days – a target which, because weekends and Monday are not classed as working days for the waste teams, was due to be met.