A resident and cyclist has complained that "defective" recycling trucks spit out shards of glass onto the roads of West Hampstead and Hampstead.

Melanie Viner-Cuneo, 53, said that when recycling trucks belonging to Veolia, Camden Council's contractor, collect rubbish, the vehicles grind the waste down and a few of the trucks seem to spit out broken glass onto the road.

"The shards of glass are literally all over the streets of West Hampstead and Hampstead. I notice this a lot because I often cycle on this road," she said.

"I’ve literally seen it come out of the bottom of recycling trucks a couple of times and spoken to the crew about it."

But after emailing Veolia a few times, she said the company has been slow to respond to her concerns.

After the Ham&High contacted Veolia, the company got back in touch with Melanie saying it had "identified the defective vehicle" and ensured it will be off the roads until it is repaired.

Melanie added: "Anyone who uses the roads should have a problem with it because it’s massively hazardous. It affects everyone – pedestrians, dogs, kids crossing the road on scooters, cyclists.

"Obviously there’s a strong possibility of it causing punctures to cyclists, which is annoying in the least and dangerous at worst, plus you’ve got the risk of people – kids and old people – having a fall whilst crossing the road and potentially falling onto glass. Dogs can pick up glass in their paws."

A spokesperson for Veolia said: “At Veolia, we take health and safety measures very seriously and the operation of our collection vehicles is very important to us.

"Our current fleet of collection vehicles is serviced every six weeks – it is therefore very rare for spillages to occur.

"We have identified the vehicle with the fault and have taken it off the road to be repaired and all our collection vehicles will now be inspected in relation to this issue. The glass spillage reported on the road has since been cleared.”