A Sidmouth representative has complained over the ‘sporadic’ emptying of dog poo bins in the town.

Sidmouth Herald: Local shop keeper Marc Kilsbie is standing for Sidmouth Town Council. Photo by Terry Ife. Ref shs 4528-35-14TI To order your copy of this photograph go to www.sidmouthherald.co.uk and click on myphotos24Local shop keeper Marc Kilsbie is standing for Sidmouth Town Council. Photo by Terry Ife. Ref shs 4528-35-14TI To order your copy of this photograph go to www.sidmouthherald.co.uk and click on myphotos24 (Image: Archant)

Councillor Marc Kilsbie told a meeting the problem has been ongoing for the last 18 months and said he has raised the matter until he was ‘blue in the face’.

An East Devon District Council (EDDC) spokeswoman said there had been issues last summer, but these should have been resolved.

Speaking at this month’s Sidmouth Town Council meeting, Councillor Kilsbie said: “The bins are not being emptied, even though the company being contracted to do it [through EDDC] is being paid for it. It is being done sporadically.

“It appears from my basic checking that they are doing every third one and staggering it.

“I have been mentioning this until I’m blue in the face and I’m fed up of making phone calls about it.

“We are paying for it to be done and it is not being done. It is really annoying. If we are trying to make the place look nice, the last thing we want is dog foul overflowing out of all the bins across the town.”

Cllr Kilsbie said that when EDDC was in charge of emptying the bins it would use different coloured rubbish bags on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - so that at a glance it could see if each one had been emptied.

Following the meeting, the Herald contacted EDDC about the issue. A spokeswoman said EDDC’s recycling and waste partner SUEZ was contracted to empty dog bins across the district three times a week.

She added it does still use a colour-coding system - black on Mondays, blue on Wednesdays and green on Fridays.

The spokeswoman said: “Although we have contracted out our waste collection to SUEZ for the past 10 years, SUEZ will naturally have experienced changes of staff during that time.

“To that end, we did have a problem with collections in the summer, while a new crew member was becoming familiar with the different routes – including Sidmouth – but this should no longer be an issue.

“If anyone notices any issues with non-emptying of our dog bins, please could they report this via our customer services team, who can log the problem and ensure that it is dealt with promptly and efficiently by our contractors.”