RESIDENTS in a rural lane near Inwardleigh are despairing of having their black rubbish sacks collected by West Devon Borough Council – ever since their bin day changed from Thursday to Friday a month ago.

Nancy Passmore, who lives at Eastacombe Farm, said black bags were piling up at the end of her lane after bin crews failed to show up last Friday (May 4).

They also failed to collect her and her neighbours’ rubbish along the lane a fortnight before, on Friday, April 20.

‘It is all piled up underneath our farm sign,’ she said. ‘They have changed the rubbish collection from a Thursday to Friday and we thought there would probably be teething problems but this is the second time they’ve missed us.

‘West Devon are so irresponsible. When I called them on Friday, they told me the collection van had broken down but my neighbour called too, and they told her that it was on its way and to leave the bags out. They never came.

‘There are about nine houses on our road that are affected, all EX20 3AU. They go to Eastacombe and to Inwardleigh but they haven’t twigged that we are out here in the sticks,’ she said.

Disappearance of their general rubbish collection has coincided with a change in the recycling collection across West Devon, with new vehicles collecting the recycling on alternate weeks.

A spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council said they were investigating.