East Sussex residents express disgust as litter seeps out of overflowing bins in town centre

A shortage of Lewes District Council staff meant the public bins were not emptied over the weekend, leaving the streets of the East Sussex town covered in in litter.

One person took a photo of the high street on Sunday and posted it on Facebook with the caption: "The bin might say ‘Love Where You Live’, but it would be nice if the council loved it as much as we do and emptied the bins. What a great advert for our historic county town.”

A number of locals showed their disgust towards the images in the comments, with one person writing: “This is terrible. Why are you paying council tax?”

The bins, which are usually emptied on a daily basis, were emptied on Monday morning and the litter cleared from the streets, the district council confirmed.

Lewes Town Council said incidents like this are exceptionally rare, but asked people to take their litter home with them on the rare occasion the public bins in the town were full.

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A town council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the comments about the bins that you have highlighted and are pleased to see that this particular incident has now been resolved. Most bins, including those owned by Lewes Town Council, are emptied regularly by Lewes District Council.

“Incidents like this are the exception and not the norm, though we would encourage residents to report any issues or problems to Lewes District Council using the ‘Report It’ (Love Clean Streets) app. Issues reported this way go straight to the right teams to deal with.

“We would also ask that on the rare occasion that a bin is full, people take litter home with them, or find an alternative bin, to help keep our streets clean.

Lewes Town Council is committed to environmental responsibility and sustainability and tackling these issues with local solutions. If residents have ongoing concerns about particular issues, they can reach out to their Town and District Councillors, details of which can be found on our website.”