A CITY campaigner has questioned the value of Derby City Council's free collection service for fridges and freezers – after she was told she would need to wait two months for a pick-up.
Dawn Gee called the council on Thursday, November 13, but was told the authority wouldn't be able to pick up her fridge until January 13.
The member of Normanton Empowerment Team, which is battling against rubbish and fly-tipping problems in the area, said such a long wait made it "unviable as a service".
Mrs Gee, of Carlisle Avenue, Littleover, said she was lucky as she had a fenced-off garden that she could leave the appliance in.
But she said many houses "do not have an area with easy storage and people find these items extremely difficult to manoeuvre".
Mrs Gee added: "The council clearly states that it offers a service where fridges and freezers are collected free of charge, but having to wait for two months is unacceptable.
"It even advertises the service on the recorded message of its automated phone service."
The council said its fridge and freezer collection service was "very popular" and had been run on an area-by-area basis since 1997.
Councillor Asaf Afzal, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and Streetpride, said: "We are currently experiencing an exceptionally high number of requests and collection slots in some areas are now full.
"This means longer-than-usual waiting times in some areas.
"Christmas and new year waste collections will be slightly different this year and our main priority will be to collect residents' bins.
"This means we won't be offering the free fridge and freezer collection during this time. After the festive period, we will work to clear the backlog of fridge and freezer collections as soon as we can."
Mr Afzal said there was also a free service at the Raynesway tip where people were able drop off their fridges and freezers.
He said: "This site is open from 8am to 6pm every day all year, except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Suppliers also offer a take-back scheme when they deliver a new fridge."
When asked how much the free collection service cost to provide, Mr Afzal said: "The costs of fridge and freezer collection are included in the wider costs of household bulky collections in Derby."
