A HUNDRED cars jammed the roads around a Bolton tip as people queued for hours to throw away their festive rubbish.

The traffic queue on the sliproad leading to the Raikes Lane tip backed on to St Peter's Way, causing chaos for hundreds more motorists.

It took several hours for the traffic to clear - but homeowners say a break in domestic refuse collections over Christmas was to blame.

There have been no domestic waste collections since Christmas Eve, and they are not scheduled to start again until January 4.

Steve Smith, aged 49, of Radcliffe Road, The Haulgh, said: "I got sick of waiting after around an hour each time, and hoped that the traffic would die down later, but it obviously has not. I spent most of the day going back and forth." Helen Matthews, aged 25, of Greenbarn Way, Blackrod, loaded her car with bin bags of waste accumulated over the festive period.

She said: "I've been here for ages, and can't believe the volume of traffic.

"It's a nightmare. If the bins had been emptied this problem wouldn't be half as bad.

"The break in services is far too long over Christmas. I'm glad I only have to make the one trip."

Imran Patel, aged 28, of Cardwell Gardens, Halliwell, took around 10 bin bags of household waste to the site. He said; "The bins should have been emptied.

"This isn't acceptable. I've been here well over an hour simply queueing. I've got bags of rotten rubbish that has been piling up in my yard."

Jim Monks, aged 68, of Higher Barn, Horwich, said: "I came earlier and the queue was huge this morning.

"It would have been much better if there had been some sort of collection service to save all this trouble."

John Lea, director of technical services at Greater Manchester Waste Limited, said: "The reduced collection services over the Christmas period has resulted in people finding their bins full of rubbish from the festive season and they want to use our tips to get rid of it.

"This is in addition to the people who use these community sites on a regular basis so they are bound to build up."

"It's a long spell without a collection, and households are building up Christmas rubbish and don't want it sitting in their back gardens. Many of them are descending on Raikes Lane and the last couple of days have been very busy with a steady flow of traffic going in and out.

"It's not a case that the tips are full, but we are struggling to deal with the amount of people wanting to use them and in some cases we have not been able to get our own vehicles in to take waste away."

A spokesman for Bolton Council said; "Refuse collections took place right up to Christmas Eve and will resume on Tuesday January 4 though they will, as usual be a day late. Monday's collection will take place on Tuesday and Friday collections on Saturday January 8.

"The holiday collection is reviewed every year as a matter of course. We will be carrying out a similar exercise early in 2005 to review this years arrangements. There could be a possibility that collection schedules may change in the future in response to customer comments if resources can be found.

This year is exceptional in the way that the holiday has fallen, but we did try to ensure that everyone was aware of the situation and every address was left a printed sticker in the week commencing December 13, showing the schedule for the holiday week.

"Any bagged extra waste which will not fit in the bin will be collected during the week. We would urge people to compact cardboard boxes and other bulky household waste to make full use of the bin and recycle as much as possible through the BRING centres which deal with glass, paper, plastics, cans and other recycleable materials."