A WINCHESTER landlord has been left “utterly confused” after having a bin taken from his pub.

Andrew Hoggart, of The Roebuck in Stockbridge Road, watched through the window as Biffa workers took the container without returning it.

This comes only a week after a local resident released CCTV footage of a Biffa binman throwing away his wheelie bin.

Mr Hoggart said: “Well, when I saw them taking it, I ran out there and asked what was going on. They told me I hadn’t completed an EPA form, and that they were ‘taking the bin’.

“If I hadn’t seen them, I would’ve thought it had been nicked like the poor bloke did last week.

“I knew for a fact I had sent the form, so I went back inside and rang up Biffa and told them. They said they had no notification of me returning the form, and instead asked me when the bin had last been serviced!”

He added: “At this point I knew they didn’t really know why the bin was taken, because they also told me they had no record of any collections from my pub since September last year.”

Biffa is responsible for the waste service on behalf of Winchester City Council.

The bin has since been returned to the pub, but Mr Hoggart claims he was not notified and that he only realised when he walked past it.

He said: “On a more serious note, we obviously need a bin because we are a pub! We should have had a better explanation.

“And, I’m sure it’s exactly the same bin they’ve returned. It hasn’t been cleaned or ‘serviced’. It didn’t even come back empty!”

Last week, Michael Druitt, 58, of Taplings Road in Weeke, shared footage of a Biffa binman collecting his bin, before loading it onto the back on the truck to empty. Once back on the ground, the binman picked it up and thrown it into the back of the truck.

He said: “The full CCTV footage clearly shows that the operator did not inspect the bin for any faults and just decided to throw the bin into the back of the truck. How many other residence have suffered the same fate from Biffa operators?”

Speaking at the time, Cllr Jan Warwick, portfolio holder for environment, said: “We will be undertaking a procurement process where we will be looking at an eight-year fixed price agreement with a provider and the very best deal for taxpayers.”

Biffa was asked to comment about the latest incident.