Managers at a Greengates housing association have kicked up a stink after a missed rubbish collection left them £50 out of pocket.

Co-ordinators at Housing 21's Kipling Court complex, Haigh Hall Road, say a delayed rubbish collection last Friday meant that a cleaner booked by the association to clean the insides of the bins had to be turned away because the containers were still full of rubbish.

Now managers are demanding compensation from Bradford Council for the cost of the cleaner, and are demanding to know regular times of refuse collections in the future.

Court manager Polly Foster said: "Rubbish used to be collected once a week on Thursday morning at 8.30am until about four weeks ago, when collections were changed to Fridays. Because we were getting complaints about the smell coming from the bins, we decided to contract an outside cleaner to come in to clean them."

Thinking the collection had been changed to a Friday, Mrs Foster booked the cleaner for Friday lunch-time, assuming that by then the bins would be emptied. But when no refuse collectors turned up, Mrs Foster had to turn the cleaner away - but still had to foot the bill for hiring the steam cleaner. The bins - three industrial-sized wheelie bins - were eventually collected on Saturday.

"I'm really angry about this because we had no prior warning about the change of collection day," added Mrs Foster. "We've got to pay out another £50 for the cleaner to come out to try and clean them again. We want compensation from the council about this and we're demanding to know a set time and day when the bins will be emptied."

A spokesman for the council's cleansing department said: "Our priority has been to make sure that all the bins are serviced while restructuring is going on and this has meant that collection days have varied. The rounds will shortly settle into a routine pattern but if people have any problems they should contact the cleansing department on Bradford 753721."

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