EAST Devon District Council has been accused of going off half cock with new recycling arrangements in Honiton.

EAST Devon District Council has been accused of going off "half cock" with new recycling arrangements in Honiton.

The authority is reviewing arrangements at flats after contractors dumped new wheelie bins in car parks, prompting a string of complaints.

H Management Services, which looks after privately-owned flats in Pine Gardens, was prompted to write to the council after residents discovered wheelie bins were "unceremoniously" left strewn around their car park, impeding vehicular access to the site.

Dave Arney, of the company, said: "This large quantity of bins, being left in such a place, is clearly both impractical and unmanageable.

"The bin area is now totally stuffed with these bins and the residents, who are mostly retired folk, will find it impossible to access individual bins without having to move many of them out of the way."

Mr Arney said the situation was "potentially dangerous and, therefore, a health and safety issue".

He has been assured the council is looking into the matter.

Meanwhile, Wilmington resident Bryony Tew told the Herald: "Nobody has really thought this through and the council has gone off half-cock.

"We've got enormous bins, but we can't even recycle a cornflakes box. We have to take cardboard to a recycling centre.

"You can't buy a chop in a supermarket without packaging."

Mrs Tew has recently returned from Canada, where even milk is sold in recyclable bags.

A spokesman for East Devon District Council said: "We are aware that contractors incorrectly left new wheeled bins at some flats where larger communal bins should have been delivered.

"We are exapnding the range of materials we collect to include plastic bottles.

"At present we do not have the capacity aboard the new collection vehicles to collect another bulky item like cardboard.

"We hope, at some stage in the future, to be able to deal with household cardboard.