AN ARTIST fed up with her irregular bin collections has decided to poke some fun at the problem, which she said has now gone “beyond a joke.”

Jill Hallet, who lives in Micheldever Road, Whitchurch, has been complaining to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council since last November over her green bin and garden waste collection, which she says keeps getting missed to be emptied.

In a fresh attempt to get something done about it, the 82-year-old sent the council a cartoon picturing her drive filled with overflowing bins and waste and a rubbish collection van zooming past.

At the top of the sketch, it read: “From a blue badge holder. Please sort it! Permanently.”

Mrs Hallet said: “I got a bit cheesed off, they don’t take a blind bit of notice so I did a cartoon of the bins outside.

“A few people I have shown it to think it’s a scream.

“I thought if I make a bit of a joke out of it I might get somewhere but it’s gone beyond a joke now.

“I thought if it’s enough to make people laugh maybe this was the way of doing it, you don’t get anything done by complaining really.”

Mrs Hallet is a blue badge holder due to a bad back problem, and so finds it difficult to lift heavy things.

The waste which is due to be collected every two weeks in a paid for service, has not been collected since July 13.

She added: “Occasionally I will get the bin collected but they keep missing me and they collect other people’s.

“My son filled in a complaint on the computer, he did get a reply and I did actually get a bin collection on July 13. I’ve still got stuff with a May date on it.

“When I call up they [Basingstoke and Deane Council] are always very helpful but nothing happens.”

Basingstoke and Deane Council cabinet member for regulatory services Councillor Hayley Eachus said: “We offer an assisted bin collection service for elderly and disabled customers. When a missed collection is reported we return to the property as soon as we can to collect this.

“On occasions where a new crew is working in an area, it may be difficult for them to identify where bins are left at a property so we ask residents receiving assisted waste collections to ensure their waste and recycling containers are left in a location that is suitable and safe for our staff to collect.

“We list incomplete rounds, along with estimated collection dates, on our website www.basingstoke.gov.uk/service-updates. If an address is not listed, we encourage residents to call our Customer Contact Centre on 01256 844844 to report their missed collection.”