AN Evesham woman says that rubbish has been allowed to mount up outside her home because Wychavon keeps sending the wrong sort of lorries to pick it up.

Joan Murfin of Mill Bank says that the problem has been caused because the council's usual lorries are too large to get past roadworks that are partially blocking her street.

She added that, along with her neighbours, she had to make weekly calls to Wychavon District Council to ask them to arrive with smaller vehicles to remove the rubbish.

She said: "This week we had another pile of rubbish that was not taken away. Unless we phone up nobody comes to do anything.

"It is ridiculous that we have to do this every week - this has been going on since the roadworks started at Christmas time.

"It is a health hazard - and being down by the water we have not only got the birds but, I assume, rats as well. It's just not very nice.

"If it carries on like this with the warmer weather coming on it's going to start smelling and all sorts of things."

Mrs Murfin explained that the problem had been made worse because there were only two bins to be shared between several homes.

Wychavon's client services manager Sharon Casswell said the problem had been recognised and something was being done. "We are aware of the roadworks and we have changed the route to include a smaller vehicle.

"Initially when the roadworks were in place the big vehicle would find it could not go through, and then call out a smaller vehicle. Now it is a matter of course that a smaller vehicle will go down there."