The bins in London’s borough of Tower Hamlets were left to overflow with black sacks of rubbish piling on the streets.
The video footage, posted to Twitter by Jessy, shows piles of rubbish stacked on top of a full bin and debris spilled across the streets.
She said: “Why should we have to live like this…emails ignored no definitive answer…it’s a shambles.”
According to Jessy the footage was filmed on March 21 and the rubbish had since been cleared away.
The backlog of uncollected rubbish in the borough was due refuse workers going on strike and further delays occurred after a collection of trucks were vandalised.
Waste in the borough had not been collected for a week as more residents were forced to work from home and to self-isolate due to the spread of the deadly virus.
Staff for the council’s waste contractor Veolia went on strike between March 9 and March 16 over unpaid holiday.
But according to the EastLondonAdvertiser, the council had since said there would be further disruptions to collections due to “criminal damage to our fleet of 41 refuse vehicles.”
Liberal Democrat councillor Rabina Khan told the EastLondonAdvertiser: “Whilst I accept there is a dispute between Veolia and their staff the fact is it is the duty of every local authority to deal with refuse collections.
“It seems there was no effective contingency planning for collecting rubbish during the strike action. In every ward across the borough people are totally reliant on the council to get this sorted.
“I have had to deal with estates densely populated with families, children, elderly and the vulnerable who are having to put up with infestations from accumulating waste and breathing foul odour.
“The refuse vehicles have also been vandalised but that means the council has to act even faster to get this sorted before the situation escalates further.”
London Borough of Tower Hamlets press office have been contacted for comment.
