Woman hits out at council over uncollected rubbish in Haywards Heath

Katrina Wale runs Flinders Coffee in South Road but said she arrived on Monday to find rubbish from the upstairs flats had not been collected by the council ‘again’.

Speaking on Facebook, she said: “The bags that the council provide for residents for general waste are thin blue plastic bin liners. They are told to leave the bags outside my cafe on Thursday nights and they are supposed to collect them on Friday morning.

“Once again the bags have not been collected. With the weekend they will be outside my food business for four days and as you can imagine it has attracted various scavengers.

“The bags have been ripped open and foraged through and the smell is awful.

“This is a public health hazard as well as a problem to my business as the smell discourages people from sitting outside the cafe or even coming in. It also looks as though the rubbish is mine which it isn’t.

“This is not the fault of the residents as this is what they are instructed to do by Mid Sussex Council.

“This is not the first time a collection has been missed and I have contacted the council about this problem which they said they would look into, so far nothing has happened.

“It is not just about the missed collection it is about the council asking residents to leave plastic bags on the street at all as it encourages pests and is a public health hazard.”

Katrina said the council needed to come up with a ‘better solution’ as it was jeopardising her business.

She added: “I am proud to be a locally owned business in the community of Hayward’s Heath but this is unacceptable for all residents and needs to be resolved.”

A spokesman for the district council responded to Katrina’s concerns on Facebook.

He said: “Our collection crew removed the waste yesterday and I have asked our waste team to contact Katrina Wale directly to discuss the issues she has raised.”

The Middy has contacted the district council for a further response.

Lindfield school’s ambition for ‘outstanding’ rating after successful Ofsted visit

Watch Burgess Hill woman flex her muscles ahead of World’s Strongest Woman bid