A Teddington restaurant was left fuming after being left without a bin collection for days in the week that outdoor hospitality re-opened.

Shambles restaurant started a daily contract with the Council for the collection of their commercial waste prior to the re-opening of their garden restaurant space on Monday 12 April.

But in a series of Tweets later that week the restaurant said it was not receiving any rubbish collections despite repeated calls and emails complaining about the waste.

On the fifth day with no collection the rubbish was finally collected at 2.30pm, though the restaurant had already been getting complaints from neighbours.

A spokesperson for Shambles told Nub News : "Before we re-opened I arranged with the council a daily contract for the removal of our waste (which is NOT cheap).

"During lockdown we opted to stay closed to make kitchen improvements costing us tens of thousands.

"We've kept all our staff employed and we have employed a further 6."

They expressed concern about the hygiene implications of the delay including foxes, bad smells and general pollution around the area.

On Twitter the restaurant said the problem was "totally unacceptable from the council who is meant to be setting standards of Health & Hygiene."

Richmond Council gave the following response: "Shambles restaurant recently changed its contract to daily collections after being closed due to COVID-19 and unfortunately there were a few issues adapting to the new daily collections.

"The Council is in contact with the restaurant to rectify the situation and we continuously work with our contractors to provide a consistent waste, recycling collections and cleansing services across the borough."

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