Binmen won't take this man's flattened boxes... unless he cuts them up first

After having his fitted kitchen installed, John Browne thought disposing of the cardboard boxes the fixtures had come in would be the easy bit.

The retired engineer folded and flattened the boxes and left them in a neat pile for the binmen to collect.

But when he found they had left the boxes in his garden, he called the council, and was told he would have to cut the boxes into smaller pieces before they could be taken.

Six days on, and the boxes remain outside his home in Hawkinge, Kent, after a series of baffling exchanges with the council, which on one occasion included the authority denying it collected cardboard at all.

Mr Browne, 64, said yesterday: 'The council tries to encourage us to recycle but they don't make it easy.

'It was all tidily set out but when the recycling men came round they just left it there.

'What really upset me was that on the day I phoned the council they specifically told me they didn't collect cardboard - which I knew was absolute nonsense.

'After I put the phone down I took my dog for a walk and I saw a vehicle which they use solely to collect cardboard being driven around about a quarter of a mile from my house.

'Then when I called back to tell them they admitted they did collect cardboard - but only in cornflakes box-size pieces.

'And they asked me if it was flytipped. I was honest and told them it was mine and they said, "Oh, if it was fly-tipped we could have collected it for you".

'So if I had chucked the lot of it in my neighbour's garden it would have already been taken away.

'The cardboard is still there and I've cut it up. The council assure me they are going to come and collect it on Friday but I don't hold out much hope.'

He added: 'We have already switched from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collections, so that is a depletion of service, and now this happens.'

A spokesman for Swale Borough Council said the 'cutting up' advice was given in error, adding: 'On this occasion Mr Browne was misinformed by us regarding this collection and we apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.'