A WEST Devon licensee this week says she is at her wits end, after a new health and safety policy has meant no rubbish collections at her pub since the beginning of April.

Sarah and Ted Williams of the Olde Plough at Bere Ferrers say the pub has enjoyed normal rubbish collections for 20 years — but now a tiny strip of cobbles outside the building has been deemed too dangerous for contractors to cross with bins.

Sarah said: 'I am at the point where I feel like taking all my rubbish to the council and dumping it there — nobody wants to know, we are just pulling our hair out!'

Sarah said she and her husband had been told that the 660 litre bins they had been using for years were now deemed too heavy and they were asked to use 360 litre bins instead.

Sarah said they tried using the smaller bins offered, but could not fit the amount of waste they had in — and Biffa would only supply more for a fee.

'It seems to me they are taking down the service to one driver, who can't do the job adequately, and they want to charge us more anyway,' said Sarah.

'We have now been to three other companies, who say they have no issue with the bigger bins, but they won't come out to us because we are too far away.

'Biffa won't service us at all now because of the cobbles — it's a crazy situation but nobody seems to be interested.

'We pay our council tax, we pay our business rates but we are getting absolutely nowhere.

'I've looked into taking it away to a dump myself but I'd have to get a licence for moving it and they want £63 a week.

'We have had no waste collections now for eight weeks and I'm having to store it in sheds.'

A spokesperson for West Devon Borough Council said the authority had great sympathy with the problem facing the couple, but said it was not responsible for collecting business waste.

The spokesperson said they had been in contact with Mr and Mrs Williams and given them advice in order to help them come up with a solution.

A spokeswoman for Biffa said the company had made the decision to supply the smaller bins to prevent any damage or accidents in the future: 'There had been a few near misses so Biffa decided it was not worth taking the risk with the larger bins and offered the smaller, more manageable bins to the customer,' she said.

'This didn't reduce the overall capacity for waste, nor did it change the collection from the site.'