Cllr Richard Wilson and Liberal Democrat GLA candidate for Haringey and Enfield Dawn Barnes on Park Road, Bounds Green, on April 16. The next delivery on this road according to Veolia is April 20.

Haringey’s political foes are involved in a dirty war of words over rubbish.

The Liberal Democrat group is demanding that the Labour group halts the “experiment” of fortnightly rubbish collections after residents in the west of the borough reported overflowing bins.

This demand comes weeks after the council started its new waste management plan, with general waste collected on a fortnightly basis, while recycling of dry goods and food continues to be collected each week.

It does not apply to estates, homes above shops or blocks of flats, but does apply to homes which have been turned into houses of multiple occupation – where it seems most of the overflowing bins can be found.

The Lib-Dems say their councillors have been inundated with people angry about the state of their roads.

Cllr Jim Jenks, Lib-Dem environment spokesman, said: “Liberal Democrats have said from day one that we are in favour of efforts to increase recycling, but this evidence overwhelmingly suggests that Labour’s fortnightly collection experiment has been a shambles.

“From Noel Park to Bounds Green, and Alexandra Park you can see areas where bins are overflowing and these are days away from collection.

“It’s clear that there are major problems in roads where there are many houses in multiple occupation, where front gardens cannot cope with the number of bins needed and there have been many examples of missed collections.”

But Labour said the claims are “cynical scaremongering”.

Cllr Nilgun Canver, cabinet member for the environment, said: “The vast majority of residents have given us positive feedback around the new recycling scheme and where there have been issues with any houses in multiple occupation, we have acted quickly to ensure they have more appropriate sized bins and any problems are ironed out.

“What most people are saying is how little general waste they have left in their bins and how much more they are now recycling.”

She said the problem involves “very few households”, most of them multiple occupancy, and officers are knocking on the doors of any which had been flagged up by residents.

Cllr Canver said: “It’s in all our interests to encourage behaviour change where residents are resistant to calls to recycle.

“This is our big challenge and I hope residents and ward councillors will work with us to make it work.”