“Contaminated waste” has been given as the reason that a months’ worth of recycling has not been collected from a block of flats.

Residents living in the block in Sinclair Drive, Brookvale told the Gazette that the communal waste area has been overflowing with waste for more than a month.

People living in the block of flats have said they have made numerous requests to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council to collect the waste, but they were told it would be collected on on the next delivery date.

One resident, who did not wish to be named said that the residents asked the borough council for a second bin to deal with the volume of waste more than a year ago, but the second unit still isn’t forth coming.

The resident told the Gazette: “They always say next time it’s due they will take it but they don’t it happens every time we have two recycling bins for 40 flats after about year of asking for extra bin they agreed we need it but that was about five months now and we still don’t have it.

“What happens is it gets filled up and people have nowhere else to put there rubbish then the council come up with every excuse as to not take it and it then escalated to this for a couple of months until they send someone out to go through it and then it’s repeated all over again.”

However, the borough council said the reason the bins had not been collects is due to the wrong waste being put in the recycle bins.

Waste and recycling manager for the borough council Sarah Robinson said: “There have been issues at this location with the wrong items being put in the recycling bin.

"Our team visited the site this morning and the recycling bins have been contaminated with items that should go in the waste bin and the bin store is full of bulky items that cannot be collected."

She added: “We will write to all residents to remind them what should go in the recycling bins and to advise them that larger bulky items should not be left in the bin store.

"The management company is required to clear the contaminated bins and bulky items before our crews can resume collections again and support the council in sharing the message of how to use the bin store correctly.

"If the management company feels an extra recycling bin is required this can be purchased through the council but our advice would be to work on reducing contamination of the existing recycling bins first.”