Branches not deleted

Hi.

When I delete a branch in bitbucket it disappears from the web front end tool however when I issue git branch -r the branch is still present.

This makes it very difficult to keep our repo clean. I have tested and confirmed that this happens for branches with commits and without commits.

Some branches do seem to delete e.g. after a merged pull request using the close branch feature however from what I can see using the delete branch drop down on the branch directly does not seem to delete from the repo.

Please advise.