AN 85-year-old woman has been left at her "wit’s end" after half a dozen sacks of rubbish were left piling up outside her house.

Sheila Pentney, of Sweet Briar Road, Stanway, is supposed to receive the assisted collection service as part of the new fortnightly system.

But her son has complained to Colchester Council on several occasions after her black bags stuffed full of rubbish were left to rot outside her home.

On each occasion he was told a team would collect the rubbish within three days, but no-one ever arrived.

Peter Pentney, from Wivenhoe, said: “The only time they have collected any black bags in the past two weeks is when my mother’s carer went out and physically put three bags in their hands.

"Aside from that they have just ignored it, the pile keeps getting bigger.

“The annoying thing is we have a letter from the council saying she gets ‘assisted collection.’ “She hasn’t been getting collection at all.

“It would seem to me that the Colchester Council are struggling somewhat with the new scheme.”

Mr Pentey, 52, also attempted to report the issue on Colchester Council’s website, only to hit a brick wall.

“I have gone back to the web - page again to report this issue and they are updating it, so no reports can be made,” he said.

“What a good time to redo a web page - two weeks after going live with a fortnightly bin collection.

“Because my mother is 85 years old, chair and house bound, she has carers to look after her four times a day.

“Having rotting rubbish on her doorstep is a health hazard.

“We are all paying more council tax, as it goes up every year, but I feel like we are getting less and less service for it.

“We pay for 12 months and we only get six months of rubbish collection.

“I don’t believe the rubbish is ever going to be collected for my mother in three days, it was just going to be left till the next collection in two weeks time.

“It is hugely frustrating for us and mainly for her, she is at her wit’s end.”

The new plans are a bid to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and, therefore, increase the amount of household waste which is being recycled.

A Colchester Council spokesman said: “I’m sorry to hear that this resident’s black bags remained uncollected for this length of time.

“I can confirm that we have now picked these up.

“We are investigating the reasons for the delay to ensure it does not reoccur.”