BOLTON’S bin collection fiasco is so bad for one Lostock mum that her autistic son is too scared to leave the house.

Sue Warburton, aged 43, of Westbank Road, has not had her bins collected for three weeks and now the smell is so unbearable that her 10-year-old son, Callum, will not go outside.

She said: “There are maggots and flies and the smell is disgusting. It has got to the point where Callum is scared because he has autism.

“I have complained four or five times over the last three weeks, but still nothing is being done. I lodged an official complaint and the person at the council said something would be done within 14 days. By then there will be even more rubbish piled up.”

Mrs Warburton, a teaching assistant, lives in with her husband, Declan, daughter Ciara, aged 11, and other sons, Daniel, 19, and Dale, 20.

She said that last week she was forced to take bags of waste to the council tip after becoming frustrated with bin wagons missing her street.

She said: “Every time I rang the council I was told that if I left my bins out they would be back to collect it. But it wasn’t happening, so I took some of the bags myself to the tip.

“There was never much of a problem before they changed the bin rounds, but now it is just getting ridiculous.

“I see the bin wagons going down the road, but they aren’t stopping and collecting the bags from us and our neighbours.”

Bolton Council last month introduced the new rounds, which concentrate all the crews on one area of the borough on a specific day, in a bid to reduce its £400,000 annual fuel bill and improve the service.

But since then, residents have been contacting The Bolton News in droves to complain that they have mountains of rubbish piled up because of missed collections.

Bolton Council said it was aiming to rectify “teething problems” with the new system.

Public Meeting organised by The Bolton News

THE Bolton News has organised a public meeting for Monday to give readers the chance to quiz town hall chiefs about the bins situation.

Some tickets are still available for the meeting, which is taking place at the University of Bolton’s Deane Lecture Theatre, starting at 7.30pm.

Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris and the Executive member for cleaner, greener, safer Cllr Sufrana Bashir-Ismail have confirmed they will be attending and an officer from the environmental services department is also expected to be there.

To apply for tickets, a maximum of two per application, call 01204 537259 or email newsdesk@ theboltonnews.co.uk with Bins Meeting in the subject line.

We will need your name, address, contact telephone number and an email address. Readers who would like to ask a question should supply details of what that question will be.

Tickets will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.