Elderly residents in sheltered accommodation at New Earswick are outraged at having to carry their rubbish more than 80 yards to communal bins.

Pensioners living at Hartrigg Oaks, are so fed up they have petitioned City of York Council asking for their own wheelie bins.

When the Haxby Road development was first designed, architects decided that there should be communal rubbish areas, rather than providing each resident with their own bin.

According to a council report, the decision was made to save residents the danger and noise of dustcarts reversing into the development. Architects also felt it would spoil the look of the area to have bins and bags outside each bungalow.

But this means that the elderly residents now have to walk across the development with full bin bags.

And the onset of winter threatens to make the trek an even greater struggle.

Steve Reid, councillor for Huntington and New Earswick, said: "To treat elderly people as they are and make them take out their own rubbish when they pay council tax like everyone else is wrong. They do not get the service that they should."

Councillors are now to carry out a survey of all residents at Hartrigg Oaks before coming to a decision on what to do.

Coun Reid said: "The petition only came from residents of one part of the estate. We will be asking everyone in the development what they think about the issue and will see what happens when the survey has been carried out."

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