RUBBISH CHARGE

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A council is refusing to empty rubbish bins inside cul-de-sacs because it takes trucks too long to reverse into them. Instead, families have been ordered to drag their wheelie bins to the end of the street on collection day. The decision by Uttlesford District Council in Essex has outraged residents in the six cul-de-sacs which have had their doorstep collections cancelled. They have demanded a cut in council tax and warn that the groups of bins left at the entrance to roads are a safety hazard. The 200 homes affected were warned of the change in a note left on their bins. Russell Clark, Uttlesford's waste and recycling officer, said the number of households in the area had increased from 11,000 to 16,000 within two years.

He said binmen are working an additional two hours a day to cover the increase but rather than increase the amount of money spent on waste collection, in line with increased revenue from council tax, Mr Clark said the council is trying to make savings. He said, "Creating central collection points reduces the amount of time spent by our operatives trying to manoeuvre either by vehicle or foot into areas that aren't easy to access. As the number of houses in our area increases it becomes increasingly difficult to reach them all. We would have to increase council tax by about £3 per year to continue to offer a doorstep collection for everyone." A Local Government Association spokesman commented, "It's up to each council how it collects waste and recycling. Some towns are full of long housing terraces whereas others have a lot of cul-de-sacs. It's about coming up with the most efficient solution." (Source: Daily Mail, Aug/08)

With ten days to go until his next fortnightly rubbish collection, John Richards wanted to avoid a stink in his kitchen. So he neatly packaged his food scraps in a carrier bag and deposited it in a public bin. A few days later a letter arrived announcing he had been fined £75, for misusing' the bin by putting domestic refuse in it. Council snoopers traced him after rummaging through the bag's contents, in which they found an envelope addressed to him. Mr Richards, of Boston, Lincolnshire, said, "I've been fined for putting my rubbish in a bin. The council told me I was flytipping."

He reluctantly paid the fine after being warned if he did not pay in 14 days the penalty would double and he could face a fine of up to £2,500 if he took the case to court. A Boston Council spokesman said, "Public litter bins are for everyone to use. If one is repeatedly filled by an individual with their domestic waste it creates a problem." Mr Richards was fined days after the council launched a campaign urging members of the public to make more use of litter bins. Readers of a local newspaper are being asked to identify culprits from CCTV pictures of litterbugs. However, street crime is still rife! (Source: Daily Mail, Oct/07)

Council bin police are to be given powers to stop, search and seize vehicles whose drivers are suspected of fly-tipping. Under laws to be introduced in 2008, bin wardens working for councils will be able to order drivers to stop and then search their cars for black bags of household refuse. They will be entitled to impound a family car if they think it is being used to dump rubbish unlawfully. This is the latest escalation of a campaign which has made it a crime to leave out too many rubbish bags or put them out at the wrong time.

Ministers announced the new stop-and-search powers for bin police as they released figures showing a massive jump in flytipping in England in the 12 months up to this spring. The big rise came in household rubbish abandoned by roadsides, a huge proportion of it in singlydumped black bags of the kind now pursued by council bin police. More than half of all "fly-tips" were of home rubbish, a 10% increase on levels reported in 2006. The jump in fly-tipping in areas which have introduced fortnightly rubbish collections was nearly three times bigger than in places where rubbish is still collected once a week.

According to figures calculated by the Taxpayers' Alliance pressure group, in areas with fortnightly rubbish collections, the increase was 11.89%. In places with weekly collections, the rise was 4.24%. MPs blamed the increase in dumped rubbish on fortnightly bin collections and overbearing rubbish collection rules imposed by the government and local councils in an effort to force families to cut the amount of waste they put out and recycle more.

A paper setting out the new powers for bin wardens will be published by the Environement, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn in the New Year. The consultation will pave the way for regulations establishing council stop-and-search powers by the end of 2008. The regulations can be brought in without full-scale new legislation under the terms of the 2005 Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, the law which first gave council wardens the right to impose on-the- spot fines for litter offences. (Source: Daily Mail, Oct/07)

Portsmouth council bosses have ordered householders not to put rubbish in dustbins, because of health and safety concerns. Residents have been sent letters warning them that binmen will no longer take their rubbish away if they continue to put it out in wheelie bins. Their local authority says that by placing sacks of rubbish in bins, dustmen are forced to reach inside to lift them out and dispose of them which could hurt their backs. Instead residents are told to place bags of waste directly onto the street for collection because the council's dustcarts are not all fitted with bin lifts. Householders claim that sacks left in the streets can be ripped open by scavenging animals and turn their neighbourhood into a rubbish dump.

The problem is made even worse because household waste is only collected once a fortnight. As a result many have bought their own wheelie bins. Residents have branded Portsmouth City Council as "archaic" because it is one of the few local authorities in the country not to offer an automated bin-lift service on dustcarts. About 50 people have been sent stern warnings in the post saying that dustmen won't empty their wheelie bins anymore. The council's waste collection manager, Vince Venus, said, "Crews in some places were trying to do the residents a favour by reaching into their wheeled bins. But we can't allow that to go on anymore because of health and safety."

He added, "It's easy enough to reach into a wheeled bin and take a top bag or even a second bag, but to get a heavy bag from the bottom would be very difficult. Wheeled bins are not designed to be manually emptied. We've got some strong guys in our refuse crews but we have a duty to take care of our employees. If you consider a human being arching deep into a bin to lift out a heavy bag, you could easily pull a muscle in your back or your arm. It's just not worth risking it." Meanwhile, another council has been blasted for its "recycling madness". Pensioners have slammed the council after being given bins for grass cuttings and weeds, when they don't have gardens.

Pensioners in a sheltered housing complex who have their lawns mowed by the local council were baffled when a lorry-load of green wheelie bins were dished out. When the elderly residents at Rawmarsh, South Yorkshire, complained they were told they could put cardboard in the bins as well, but they don't have any waste cardboard. Residents have suggested to Rotherham Council that it would be more sensible for sheltered housing complexes to have a few communal green bins. The council say cardboard and vegetable peelings can also be put in the green bins which are being distributed to all of Rotherham's 110,000 homes.

Half of those homes have been included in the first phase of the council's green bin roll-out. Hugh Long, Rotherham Council's partnerships and development co-ordinator said, "Green bins give residents the opportunity to recycle a variety of compostable material. People can use them to dispose of cardboard, grass cuttings, leaves, clean shredded paper and hedge clippings among other items. We appreciate not everyone will find the bins useful." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/07)

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