AN ANGRY York woman who has had stinking rubbish left lying near her home for two weeks today called on the council to shift it.

Vicky Power, of Eldon Terrace, claims bin men will not collect the waste because it is not in a wheeled bin.

But she says only half the street has them - and now the mini-mountain of 40 bin bags in an alleyway behind her house in The Groves is a "health hazard".

Council workers returned to the street yesterday - but not to remove the bags, just to mark them with "excess rubbish" stickers.

Vicky told the Evening Press: "The rubbish has been piling up for two weeks now and as you can imagine it's pretty disgusting.

"There are about 40 bin bags, as well as cardboard boxes and they did not take them away last week or on Tuesday morning. It's a health hazard and needs collecting.

"I called the council, but just got pushed from pillar to post."

Vicky said she experienced similar collection problems a month ago before rubbish was eventually collected.

A City of York Council spokeswoman said the authority was aware of the problem.

"It has arisen because residents have left out bags of refuse for collection, in addition to their wheeled refuse bins.

"Where wheeled bins are used, council policy states that no excess waste will be collected.

She said: "While we have removed any bags that had burst to avoid attracting vermin and prevent rubbish from blowing around the alley, we have marked the rest with stickers to remind residents that additional waste will not be collected.

"Our street environment officer will be investigating where the rubbish has come from, then visiting those responsible to remind them if they use wheeled bins, they can't leave out bags of rubbish for collection.

"It may be that some of the residents are new to the area and are not aware that this is the case."

She said: "If the policy of using wheeled bins is causing a problem for residents of Eldon Terrace, it may be that we need to revert back to using black bags, which are collected at their front doors instead of wheeled bins that are left at a refuse collection point for emptying."

Updated: 10:54 Thursday, June 10, 2004