Britain In Revolt: Citizens Plan Marches On City Halls
Jun 17, 2009 12 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
“There is growing anger among residents. We’ve become too complacent …’This wave of anger will undoubtedly spread. People are fed up…people are fighting back…”
Wheelie bins are often parked outside front doors because many families have nowhere else to put them and binmen want to reach them easily from the road.
The rise of recyling has left some residents with as many as three wheelie bins – one for household rubbish, another for recyclables and a third for garden waste. There can also be boxes for glass and tin.
Last night Doretta Cocks, an environmental campaigner who opposed fortnightly bin collections, said: ‘People are fighting back.
‘There is growing anger among residents. We’ve become too complacent in recent years – too used to the sight of wheelie bins in towns, cities and villages but they are an eyesore and people are beginning to realise that.
‘This wave of anger will undoubtedly spread. People are fed up with the sheer number of wheelie bins they have been given and the expectation that they will simply accommodate them.
‘Some people have nowhere else to put them other than in their front garden or on the pavement and are being prevented from enjoying the small space they actually have.
‘Others simply can’t sit outside any more because of the bins and the great number of flies that follow.’
In South Oxfordshire, residents plan to march on Henley-on-Thames town hall next month in protest at the wheelie bins delivered to terraced properties and apartment blocks earlier this month.
They say the bins are ugly, unmanageable and damage the scenic town’s image.
Craig Nayman, 50, who has lived in Henley for 27 years, said: ‘I don’t think I have ever felt strongly enough about anything in Henley to complain about until now.
‘Henley is a beautiful town with a conservation area. It stands in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
‘Now, because of the insensitive way the district council has handled the matter, we are faced with a blight on Henley’s good looks.
‘When I complained to the council it sent out two people who told me that in their judgment there was “no aesthetic element” in the process as far as Henley was concerned.
‘How can you not care about how the town looks? Everyone here works very hard to make it look good and the council seems bent on destroying these values.’
The business consultant says he now has to use three bins that were ‘dumped’ outside his riverfront apartment last week.
Ian Pettman, a software developer who also lives in Henley, said: ‘My concern is for elderly or disabled people.
‘There are many people living in my road who will not be able to move these bins.
‘There has been a total lack of thought where the district council is concerned.
‘Many of the houses in Henley were simply not designed to cope with wheelie bins. They are actually bigger than my mother, who is in her eighties.’
Henley residents also claim the bins have been dumped carelessly in streets, blocking pavements outside terrace homes.
In Chester, residents say the council has given them three bins when it had assured them it would not. Dewi Birmingham, a 51-year-old engineer, said: ‘ People are effectively being forced to keep bins in their front garden. For those living in mid-terraces it’s impossible not to.
‘Otherwise they would have to walk three bins all the way down the street, round the corner and into the back yard. Imagine doing that with three bins? It’s just crazy.
‘Chester is a beautiful town and attracts lots of tourists but these bins are just destroying that beauty. One lady described her front garden as a gift to passers-by but now she’s got the bins in the front yard it is nothing more than an industrial estate.’
Rubbish fines were imposed on 44,000 households in 2006. Others have been spied on if suspected of failing to recycle.
As highlighted by the Daily Mail’s Great Bin Revolt campaign, anger has been growing over the number of councils switching to fortnightly collections.
Almost half of England’s 350 local authorities have abandoned the weekly rounds that were established by law in 1875.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: ‘Councils want to run bin collections that work for local people and make it as easy as possible to recycle more waste because it keeps council tax down.
‘Councils pay £40 in taxes to the government for every ton of rubbish that goes into the ground.
‘Cutting back on waste going to landfill is good for the environment and good for the council taxpayer.’
Some councils admit however that a large percentage of the separated waste can be taken to landfill because of cross-contamination.
Do YOU have a wheelie bin horror story? Contact the Mail on news@dailymail.co.uk or phone 020 7938 606.
