Streets of confused Croydon residents saw their controversial new bins removed last week, as the council u-turned on its recycling scheme. 

The introduction of the scheme in September, which replaced residents' recycling boxes with larger bins, was followed by reports of missed collections across the borough.

Last week, workers began collecting the new bins on a number of streets, such as Sunny Bank in South Norwood.

Dan Narayah, 43, who lives on Sunny Bank with his family of five, said: "There are a lot of people on Sunny Bank who are angry and confused with this situation.

"A couple of high vis workers came and pulled all the new bins and loaded them onto a flatbed van.

"I asked them what they were doing and they said they got told by the council to remove all the new bins as apparently the dust carts can't get round.

"I can't speak about others but I thought it useful to have the new bins, the old recycling bins get full too quickly and foxes like to go through it and make a mess.

"We were told the new lorries were too big to access the road, but they looked like the normal lorries anyway."

The removal of the new bins leaves any residents who threw away their old recycling boxes without anywhere to put their recycling.

Mr Narayah added: "Luckily I put mine in the back garden. I did notice a few residents did leave their old boxes out to be collected."

In a letter posted to Sunny Bank residents, the council said: "Having listened to the concerns of residents, we have agreed with our contractor Veolia that there are a considerable number of properties that are not suitable for the new bins.

"We will therefore be removing the new bins from all properties on the street and you will be able to use your bin/boxes as previously.

"We realise that there will have been many people who were looking forward to the new bins, so want to apologise for the inconvenience, however, from an operational perspective, the number of properties that would have required an alternative solution would have made it extremely difficult to continue."

Missed collections have been widespread since the new bins were introduced.

Residents in Lakehall Gardens, Thornton Heath, say their bins have only been emptied twice in the last seven weeks.

Workers tell residents they struggle to access the cul-de-sac due to parked cars and have difficulty carrying the new, larger bins to their lorries.

Lakehall Gardens resident, Sheila Brown, 69, who has written to council leader Tony Newman about the situation, said: "Must I really have to bother so many people just to get what the residents of Lakehall Gardens are paying for, refuse collection?"

"I'm tired this - tired of emailing and calling the council just to get them to do the bare minimum."

A Croydon Council spokesman said: “A new waste and recycling system was introduced to help boost the borough’s recycling rate to more than 50% over the next two years.

“In a small minority of cases we have decided to revert properties to the old recycling box system, or other collection arrangements, because of the addresses' specific circumstances.”

Have your new bins been removed? Email euan.o'byrnemulligan@newsquest.co.uk