THOUSANDS of Leigh, Atherton and Tyldesley people are facing another week of being snowed under . . . by Christmas rubbish. People who normally have their bins emptied on Mondays or Tuesdays have not been visited by binmen since the week before Christmas. And their rubbish will not be collected until the week beginning on Monday.

Approximately 30,000 residents are thought to have been affected.

Because Christmas and New Year fell on a Monday, householders whose rubbish is usually collected on Monday or Tuesday were promised a collection last Thursday and Friday.

And stickers were even placed on their bins to tell them of the Christmas arrangements.

But bad weather led to cleansing bosses cancelling collections as the bin lorries could not get round most streets and it was feared binmen would injure themselves on icy pavements.

The growing piles of smelly refuse outside homes has angered some residents.

Linda Brokenshire, of Frome Close, Stour Road Estate, Tyldesley, said the service was not good enough: "They were supposed to come on December 28 but because of the bad weather they didn't come.

"It's been almost three weeks now since our bins were emptied. I've been to the tip twice but there are still bags of trash all over the place.

"And because it's been Christmas I've got far more rubbish than usual. Plus I've got three kids aged five, seven and 12.

"We pay for this service. Why do we have to wait another week before they come to us? At the moment everyone in the street has got their bins out on the road. It's disgusting."

The council has decided the least disruption will be caused by sticking to the original programme where collections scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday or Friday will carry on as normal. They will not be making a special trip to remove the accumulated rubbish for those who have their bins emptied on Monday and Tuesday. Those people will have to wait until next week.

Peter Taylor, director of engineering services, said: "We are sorry for the disruption caused by the weather conditions last week. I can understand the frustration of those householders who will go for up to three weeks without a collection.

"On balance we believe it is better to continue with the remainder of the programme rather than catch up those properties which were inevitably missed last week.

"The alternative would be to create chaos and confusion for everybody else who is expecting a collection this week.

"It is particularly unfortunate, since we put a lot of effort this year into telling people what the special arrangements would be by attaching stickers to every bin in the borough explaining the holiday schedule.

"I can assure residents whose bins are usually emptied on a Monday or a Tuesday and who we have been unable to reach this week that we will collect all the rubbish which has accumulated next Monday and Tuesday, when normal service resumes."