The council service includes collecting newspapers, cans and glass in a blue box on alternate weeks to the normal bin collection.

But Portland Terrace resident Yvonne Mather says the main problem surrounds the green bin garden waste collection service, which used to be carried out on the same day as the blue box by a different collection team.

"Earlier in the year we got a leaflet through the door saying the green bin was changing to a Tuesday collection," said Yvonne.

"We don't have much garden waste so we did not realise we had a problem at first but we duly put the bin out in the correct place at the crack of dawn on the designated Tuesday –– it was not collected."

She says the situation then descended into farce when she was told by council officials that her collection day was Thursday –– but again her bin was not collected when she put it out.

Yvonne then emailed the council and was told the collection day was Tuesday, so a little confused she phoned the council's main office.

"I was told by them that our day for blue box and green bin is Tuesday," she said. "I then had a Monty Python-esque conversation, when I was told that my blue box had been emptied for years on a Thursday by mistake as our day is Tuesday.

"By this time I was losing the will to live and ended the call. My blue box is still being emptied 'by mistake' on a Thursday, but my green bin is still full and we are fed up of playing green bin hokey cokey."

A Bolsover District Council spokesman told Chad this week that letters informing residents of the change of collection days were sent out in April.

He said: "The collection of recycling for residents of Portland Terrace is on a Tuesday, with the next collection on 7th October. If bins are put at the front of properties they will be emptied."