A BASINGSTOKE man was horrified to find maggots crawling in his bins after the council changed the weekly bin collections to fortnightly.

Simon Byng, 57, from South Ham, put his bins out on the morning of June 23, to find half a dozen maggots crawling away inside his bin.

He told the Gazette: "I lifted the lid off the bin and saw all of these maggots.

"This was the first time something like this has happened.

"The bins smelled dreadful and it wasn't a pleasant site."

Simon pays contractors to sterilise his bins and did not think the bins were that bad.

His household waste had been rotting for two weeks, rather than the usual seven day cycle.

The 57-year-old normally bags the waste so it goes in the bin liners, and the maggots were spotted on top of the bags.

"It was particularly hot on the morning I saw the maggots, and I thought the bin liner fitted securely.

"Flies got in the bin, and maggots were seeping over the edge of the bagged waste," he added.

Simon claims that Basingstoke binmen were shielding and could not collect waste every week, which he believes explains why the council changed it to fortnightly bin collections.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) previously said they would keep bin collections "under review" and will "go back to normal collections as soon as possible after the Government restrictions have been lifted" and it was "safe to do so".