Highgate residents have hit a wall of silence from Haringey Council almost a year after starting their fight against overflowing wheelie bins.

People in The Miltons have been objecting to new fortnightly rubbish collections since they were launched a year ago.

Dubbed ‘‘the great Dalek invasion’’, the changes have left them with two large weelie bins outside every house.

But they say the council stopped responding to them late last year, and did not acknowledge any emails from then until Tuesday this week, when an email about the lack of response was recognised as a complaint.

Christopher Riley, chairman of The Miltons Residents Association, said: “There has been a great silence. We had a meeting in October, but that is basically the last time we really heard from them.”

Residents fear they will be forced into taking the matter to the Local Government Ombudsman unless an agreement can be reached.

But Cllr Nilgun Canver, Haringey cabinet member for environment, said a consultation in the summer revealed more than 70 per cent of people preferred the fortnightly collections to alternatives the council proposed.

“We are aware of the ongoing complaints of a handful of residents on Milton Avenue,” she said.

“Now that these are going through the second stage of our complaints procedure we would ask Mr Riley to allow for the procedure to progress.”