COUNCIL bosses have cleared up a huge backlog of hypodermic needles which have been waiting for waste collection from homes across York.

Russell Stone, head of operations at City of York Council, said 180 collections had been made, which included 1,010 boxes of sharps.

Now the authority was working with Yorwaste on the possibility of installing a disposal facility at Hazel Court household waste and recycling entre for customers who would like to dispose of their needles themselves.

He said this would reduce the number of collections needed from residents’ homes.

Mr Stone said previously that data showed the council was receiving an average of 50 collection requests per month. He said the company it used collected 12 per week, so the authority should be able to keep up to date after clearing the backlog.

The news comes just weeks after The Press revealed how diabetic Sally Rowlinson, of Osbaldwick, was storing several boxes full of hundreds of used needles and had no way of disposing of them safely.

She said it would be irresponsible to put them in her bin but the council had told her she faced a six month wait for them to be collected safely.

She said she had also been told she could not take them down to a council waste depot and leave them there, and she feared some diabetics facing such a wait would end up putting their needles in their bins.

She complained to her councillor Mark Warters, who said he hoped funding would be made available immediately: this was essential to alleviate the distressing situation for people who, through no fault of their own, found themselves having to dispose of used needles as part of self medication for long term medical conditions such as diabetes.

He contacted The Press to publicise the problem and he said yesterday he felt the coverage created by telling Sally’s story had led to the swift resolution of the problem. He told Sally: “Your bringing this matter to prominence and getting this in The Press has brought about a much quicker response than I ever thought possible.”

Sally confirmed all her sharps had now been collected, and said it was good news that the backlog had been cleared.

However, she felt it was essential that the council did make it possible for diabetics to be able to dump their needles safely at a refuse depot, rather than always having to leave them out for collection.