A resident of south east Cornwall, whose area is the latest to receive Cornwall Council’s new waste collection bins, has taken her complaints to the very top, telling the local authority’s chief executive Kate Kennally “the new rubbish arrangement beggars belief and is, quite frankly, rubbish”.

Fliss Zakaszewska, who lives in Looe, was so incensed that the new food waste caddies and rubbish bins were delivered with no instructions – with her neighbour not even being delivered the bins – that she took it to the top of the council. She also is concerned that properties in an ancient town like Looe aren’t designed to wheel the new containers from the back of old cottages to the front for collection.

The council is rolling out its new weekly food waste and fortnightly rubbish collections across Cornwall up until 2025. The new system includes a silver kitchen caddy to separate food waste from rubbish, a green outdoor caddy for storing food waste and putting it out for collection, and a wheelie bin or reusable protective sack for putting your rubbish out for collection. Every household should have received a leaflet explaining the new collections. Ms Zakaszewska emailed Ms Kennally to tell her: “Last week, the ill-thought-through wheelie bins were delivered (i.e. stuck outside residents’ front doors). My neighbour, whose only door is along a passage way, was left out and would have not had a bin had I not noticed, chased after the men and got one brought down. How many more people with no visible front doors have been missed out?”

She added: “Today, in the total absence of any instructions, I put my black bin liners in my shiny new wheelie bin. Imagine my stunned horror and disgust to find a yellow label attached telling me my rubbish has to fester for another week and … then what? There is no date on this label as to when I should start using it. I would therefore have a right to assume my by-now-not-so-shiny wheelie bin will go out again next week with the added rubbish.

“I looked up online and this won’t take effect until April? Two or three months hence? At some point I am going to have to use the words ‘brain-dead stupidity’ so I might as well start now. This is brain-dead stupidity.

“It’s inconceivable that I should even have to be writing this to intelligent people who came up with this abomination, or at least were responsible for signing it off, but you had the yellow labels printed so why didn’t you have yellow labels printed and attached to the bins when they were delivered giving this information before a collection, and the date the new bins will be used?

“Why deliver in January giving people the inconvenience of having this empty monstrosity standing around for three months? Various stories are flashing around Facebook and the like, some people stating you no longer are ‘allowed’ to put rubbish in black bin liners, others claiming you must use black bin liners. No information from Cornwall Council, remember?”

Ms Zakaszewska then questioned the practicality of storing the new bins for residents of towns like Looe with a proliferation of old cottages.

“Wheelie bins and Looe … name practically any other ancient Cornish town. Mostly cottages in the town centres, frequently with no access from the back to the front other than through the house to the front door. Do you seriously expect people to keep their rubbish at the back and wheel it merrily through their house every week?

“Apart from the fact that the idea is disgusting and carries many health and safety implications, to bring a bin from my backyard through the house, there is a step up into the kitchen, a step down to the stairwell, two steps down to the sitting room and a push through two doors and a narrow vestibule to the street.

“I am not the only one with these problems. My 80-year-old neighbour has no access from her back garden to the street, she lives alone, is independent despite having recently had two hip replacements and you expect her to drag rubbish through her house in a wheelie bin that is nearly as high as I am tall? She is far from alone in this predicament.”

She added: “The whole ‘plan’, if ever anyone actually planned it, is unworkable on all sorts of levels. Abort this ill-fated abomination before you pour good money after bad. In short, stop wasting more of my council tax.”

Ms Kennally responded to the complaint, telling Ms Zakaszewska: “Thank you for you email regarding the roll-out of our new waste collection service. My colleague Verity Palk who is responsible for waste collection will respond to the issues and queries that you have raised.”

A council spokesperson said: “We are introducing changes to our recycling and rubbish collection service to help residents reduce waste, increase recycling and contribute to a more sustainable Cornwall.

“To prepare households for our new waste service we have recently been communicating with households in south east Cornwall who are the second area to start using the new weekly food waste and fortnightly rubbish collections. Residents in the first area of mid Cornwall have already started their new collections after receiving their containers and leaflets.

“We are reviewing the resident’s specific queries and will provide a response to them directly regarding their concerns and issues.”