An elderly woman was left with an overflowing garden waste bin after it was not collected for eight weeks.

Julie Devlin, 54, says she repeatedly complained to the council about the situation at her mum’s house in Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon.

Rosemary, her 83-year-old mother, pays £68-a-year for the fortnightly service but was left with overflowing bins for two months.

Julie said: “When I got in touch with Croydon Council they said ‘really sorry, this shouldn’t be happening’, they said they would put in a report so everybody waited another two weeks, then they still weren’t collected.”

Julie was told that the bins would be collected only if they were put into plastic bags and left on the side of the road.

She said: “My mum’s garden waste bin was absolutely overflowing, she is 83 and in ill health, she is not going to empty the bin and put it into plastic bags.”

The part of Chipstead Valley Road that Rosemary and her neighbours live on doesn’t have road access at the back or front.

But Julie said before this episode, the bin trucks have never had any trouble getting down an alleyway that the gardens back on to.

Finally after two months of waiting, the bins were collected on Tuesday morning (July 20), but Julie claims the bins were left at the end of the alleyway instead of dropped back at people’s gates.

Julie added: “This guy wheeled about 20 bins to the end of the alleyway on to Rickman Hill then just left them there.

“My mum wouldn’t be able to get herself there and get the bins back, luckily a kind neighbour did it for her.

“When it was emptied it stank because it had been sitting overflowing for so long. This is a service we pay for, I think it is totally unacceptable.”

A spokersperson for Veolia, which manages the service for the council, apologised for the delays to collection.

They said: “We are currently experiencing no delays in the garden waste service in Croydon.

“We have been made aware of a small number of missed collections on Chipstead Valley Road and are currently investigating this further. We apologise to those affected and hope to rectify the situation ahead of the next collection date.”

Coulsdon Town councillor Mario Creatura branded the missed collections a “disgrace”.

He said: “Residents pay good money to Croydon Council to get their garden waste collected, if they do not get it collected they should receive a refund. We wouldn’t tolerate it in any other part of our life and yet they are, in essence, trapped.”

A Croydon Council spokesperson said there isn’t a borough-wide issue with the collections.

They said: “We are aware of five residents in Chipstead Valley Road who had reported a missed green waste collection, and we are looking into this to resolve any issues.

“If we find evidence of missed collections, we may be able to offer a short extension to the resident’s subscription free of charge.”