A pensioner has slammed the council after his garden waste was not emptied for seven weeks.

Harold Spencer, who does gardening for his neighbours, has not had his garden waste bin collection for seven weeks.

The 83-year-old has lived at his home in North Road for 75 years and says he has never had any issues with waste collection.

It has left the pensioner from St Denys frustrated at why the city council "has to change things when they’re not broken".

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Households across the city have faced bin collection chaos after a change to the way refuse crews operate.

Under the previous system, crews could leave at 1pm if they had finished their bin round.

But at the end of January, Southampton City Council changed this so workers have to finish at the end of their shift. This has led to delays and missed collections.

READ MORE: Bin collections left for six weeks amid refuse chaos

Speaking to the Echo, Harold said: “They drove by and missed by bin. It was probably around two inches from the pavement, and I quickly grabbed my shoes and went out.

“I walked up to Stanley Road and told them they had missed my bins, they said they couldn’t grab my bin because it was in my property. I said ‘Fair enough’ but it’s two inches away you could have just grabbed it.

“He told me he would come back but they never did.”

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The grandad of three had previously called the council about the collection issues but would always be told: "We’ll take a look at it."

He told the Echo about his frustration saying: “It’s awful. If things were working perfectly which they were why are they having to change things?

“Before when I put the wrong bins out they used to sometimes come to the garden where I was and would warn me I had put the wrong ones. That doesn’t happen anymore.”

A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: “Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, having checked our records we can confirm that this issue had not been reported.

"A collection has been arranged and the situation will be monitored over the coming weeks.”