BIN collections in Marlow have come under fire this week after two readers contacted the MFP with serious safety concerns over the service.

Glade Road resident Roy Cadman is angry that binmen are leaving emptied wheelie bins in the middle of the narrow pavement outside his home instead of returning them to his property.

He is worried that less mobile people or those with prams and buggies are being forced to take their life into their hands and walk into oncoming traffic to avoid the obstacles.

He said: "They are leaving emptied bins in the middle of the pavement, totally blocking it off. People have to walk out into a busy road and risk life and limb. This is happening all over the place and is an appalling hazard.

"This violates all common sense not mention health and safety. It is totally unacceptable and a real risk to people in the area."

Mr Cadman, whose wife is partially sighted, is worried that those with vision problems could easily trip over the smaller bins.

Catherine Spalton, spokesman for Wycombe District Council, said both residents and collectors are expected to leave bins at property boundaries.

She said: "Where it's not possible for residents to put their bins on their boundary, because of hedging for example, bins do tend to be put on the pavement which can present a problem for pedestrians.

"If crews aren't returning bins in the correct way, however, our contractor Serco will ensure that they address this issue with them."

There have been a number of complaints to Wycombe District Council since it rolled out a revamped waste collection service in October.

These have included late collections and some bins not being emptied at all.

Institute Road resident Mike Cummins is worried that refuse lorries are arriving later in the day since the switch, when roads are full of parked cars.

He claims this causes the already narrow streets become a treacherous obstacle course for the large vehicles.

Mr Cummins said: "Before the recent changes collections were in the relatively early morning before parking built up and were unproblematic, but now collections are much later. The legal parking means that the lorries either cannot themselves get through or, if they can, other road users cannot get past them.

"In Institute Road the problem is that cars cannot get past the collection lorries. "In Glade Road, which parking reduces to "single carriageway with passing spaces" throughout the working day and which, furthermore, is a busy access road between the A4155 Little Marlow Road and Thames Industrial Estate, the result of this effect can be chaos."

There are currently calls to address the problem of overcrowded residential streets, with former WDC leader saying this week that a study is still ongoing into how to solve the issue.

WDC’s Ms Spalton said plans are underway to address the issue of access to some of Marlow’s narrower streets.

She said: "we are aware that there have been a few issues lately that we are reviewing. "Households on some of these roads will soon get their rubbish and recycling collected by a smaller vehicle and our contractor is investigating options for dealing with access issues, which may include collecting from those roads at a different time of the day."

Have you had a problem with your bin collections since the new scheme was introduced? Email peter.grant@london.newsquest.co.uk