A Hanham woman says her rubbish has not been collected for three months.

And Catherine Knight, 37, says South Gloucestershire Council is also wasting taxpayers' money by sending out a personal collection service every time she complains.

Since February she says Sita, which is contracted by South Gloucestershire Council to collect rubbish, has failed to manage a single fortnightly collection.

Each time she phones the council to complain, a small rubbish-collection vehicle is sent to her High Street home to collect her waste.

Miss Knight is concerned Sita's ineptitude is wasting taxpayer's money.

She said: "I presumed they missed the rubbish because I have shops either side of me.

"But they have to go straight past it to do their round."

"It's even more baffling as I have lived here a year now and the problems only started in February when we had snow.

"Imagining that the problem was due to the adverse weather conditions I wasn't concerned.

"But when my bin was still not collected after four weeks I phoned the council, who arranged for it to be emptied.

"It is now the middle of May and I have not had a single scheduled collection since.

"The council has always been very good at sending someone out following a call from me to say yet another collection has been missed.

"But it got to the point where I was finding that having my own personal refuse collection service was a bit of a waste of public money.

"I got the distinct impression from the staff that they had no interest in finding out why I was experiencing such problems.

"They appeared happy just to put in a missed delivery request whenever I phoned.

"I've been fobbed off with excuses, false promises, and pointless complaint log reference numbers until I'm blue in the face.

"Following a curtly-worded email at the beginning of last week I was lucky enough to speak to someone from Sita rather than the council.

"He apologised for my troubles and it was obviously the first he'd heard of them.

"He advised that my address would be put up on the marker board and highlighted for special attention and I actually felt quite positive when I'd finished on the phone.

"However, I was dumbfounded to discover that my bin was not collected on Friday.

"I watched the bin lorry drive past in the afternoon without stopping to collect.

"I again called the council and was told they'd send someone out to collect.

"The woman I spoke to took my details and said she'd call me back once she'd spoken to Sita.

" I couldn't believe it when she told me they definitely collected my bin on Friday and therefore had no intention of coming back out.

"I assured her this was most certainly not the case. I was basically told I was lying.

"I can think of so many things in life more worthy of lying about than whether or not my bin's been collected."

South Gloucestershire Council spokesman Ryan Skeets said: "SITA, which provides a waste management service on behalf of the council, collects black bins one week and green bins the following week.

"SITA has assured the council that Miss Knight's black bin is collected every two weeks.

"Some confusion may have arisen from Miss Knight expecting her black bin to be collected every week.

"A senior manager from SITA has been in touch with Miss Knight to explain how the alternating service works.

"However the council would be happy to look into any further concerns that Miss Knight may have."