Wheelchair user riding through dog mess blames bins

Ness Bobby-Rose said wheelchair users faced a "nightmare" scenario with dog waste

Failures to empty dog waste bins have left wheelchair users with "no choice" but to ride through faeces, a woman claimed.

Ness Bobby-Rose, 57, said pavements in the Prettygate area of Colchester had become "absolutely disgusting" due to overflowing bins.

It left her regularly having to ride through puddles to clean the faeces off the wheels of her chair, she explained.

Councillor Martin Goss, head of waste at Colchester City Council, said staff sickness had disrupted a series of recent collections.

Ms Bobby-Rose said she was left clearing mess from her front garden, in Prettygate Road, due to overspill from nearby bins.

"It’s a public health issue and it should be avoided," she told BBC Essex.

"The paths are relatively narrow in certain places, and I literally cannot avoid running over [dog waste] with my wheels... It's a nightmare."

Colchester city councillor Martin Goss says people's behaviour was to blame for the issue

Ms Bobby-Rose said she was often left using a stick to pick mess from out of her wheel treads.

Her comments came after the city council announced it would be rolling out wheelie bins for household waste in 2025.

Goss, the authority's portfolio holder for waste, neighbourhoods and leisure, said he was confident the strategy would mitigate the issue.

"The issues in Prettygate have been down to staff sickness recently," he said.

"Those people are now back on duty, know those routes inside out and those bins should be getting emptied at least weekly."

The councillor said the use of wheelie bins would lower the levels of waste fly-tipped near public bins.

"The bottom line is it’s people’s behaviour that cause these issues," he added.