People have praised bin men across the Fens for carrying out a good job over Christmas while others have called for an extra collection to save bins overflowing.

A discussion of more than 80 comments on Facebook shows that some people have managed to cram festive wrapping and extra food packaging into their wheelie bins while others have struggled to find space or made extra trips to the tip.

On the Facebook March Free Discussion page one commentator said bins should be emptied each week during the Christmas holidays but councillor Jan French said: “Where would they find the money? South Cambs announced this week not emptying bins for a week saved them £400,00 plus.

“We get a good service. You can get bags from the council if your bins are overflowing.

“Bin guys deserve to have time with their families.”

She added that: “FDC are looking at additional rounds due to the increase of development. My understanding is the men’s contracts are reflected in their working hours and Saturdays are working days and allows additional time off.

“The funds will be found from increased council tax from new homes. We make the additional waste not the council.”

If people managed their waste properly then an extra festive bin round was unnecessary, said some commentators.

One said: “If you’re that worried take your excess rubbish to the tip” while another said too much packaging caused the problem and people needed to recycle more.

One said: “I think our local bin men do a cracking job, they are always more than happy to help if you catch them on their rounds. I wouldn’t expect them to put on extra collections, it’s cost prohibitive for the council.”

One said: “My husband is a bin man and works hard at his job and gets limited time off during Christmas. Most bin men will take extra waste and you can get recycling sacks for free if you ask for them which are an added bonus to store extra waste.

“We live in a block of flats which contain 34 flats and only have four single green bins and we manage.”

Another commentator noted that: “Collections are put back a couple of days not three to four weeks, if you’ve waited four weeks then you haven’t put it out correctly.”

One person said: “My partner is a binman and he hardly gets time with his daughter with working the hours they do. If they were to do more collections it would be even worse - they deserve to spend time with their family’s.”

A Fenland binmen said: “ I don’t think its practical to be doing extra work to be emptying all bins just because of extra waste. My bin overflows too, its all the extra waste we get from packaging and wrapping paper.”

Another said: “Still better than the prehistoric black sacks South Holland County Council make us use over the border in Gedney Hill, Lincs. They are a haven for local vermin who love to share their contents with the ground.”