Neighbours have banded together to oppose Brighton and Hove City Council’s plans to introduce communal rubbish bins in their area.
People living in Auckland Drive, Bevendean, are concerned that introducing large communal bins on their road would block traffic and result in fly-tipping.
After complaining to the council, the campaign group Bingate has taken its case to the Local Government Ombudsman.
On its website, the Bingate group said thatthe council’s consultation process sounded like a “done deal”.
The group was also concerned that disabled and elderly people who currently had assisted collections would no longer have any help taking their rubbish and recycling to a communal bin in the street.
The proposed changes to communal bins follow a health and safety report in which the area was described as having steep banks and narrow access points.
Hazards and risks identified in the report included the slopes, narrow steps and long walking distances required to collect bins, contributing to slips, trips and falls.
The report said: “The assessment of the Auckland Drive to Hornby Road area (referred to as Bevendean Place) highlights significant risks to waste collection operatives including steep slopes, narrow access points and long walking distances.
“By adopting a section-based approach, collaborating with residents and considering infrastructure improvements, we can reduce the risk of injuries and improve operational efficiency.”
Proposals put forward last year showed that the council was looking to bring in two 1,100-litre rubbish bins and two mixed recycling bins the same size and these were to be collected several times a week.
One or two 240-litre glass recycling bins would be emptied fortnightly along with a food waste bin.
The council’s highways team objected to the proposals put forward to put the bins on the roads and suggested cutting into the grass banks.
A summary of the highways team’s concerns said that the road was narrow and that bins on a “live carriageway” would cause an obstruction, not least because part of the road was a bus route.
Auckland Drive resident Dominic Leslie said: “Residents should not have to accept a street that looks like a dumping ground because a service that has operated for years suddenly becomes too inconvenient to provide.
“Communal bins invite fly-tipping, reduce already scarce parking and shift the burden of doing the bin crews’ job on to local people.
Another Auckland Drive resident Michael Anscombe said: “The council already misses collection rounds at times so I have serious doubts about its ability to keep larger communal bin sites properly maintained.
“There are also concerns about unpleasant smells, the loss of valuable parking spaces, displacing cars (forcing) them on to the grass verges which will block the road.
“The health and safety implications for residents have been ignored despite the council’s driver being the health and safety of its staff.”
Bevendean resident Kendrick Tugwell was frustrated that the council was moving ahead while the community was taking its case to the ombudsman.
Mr Tugwell said: “We’re not against bins. We’re against unsafe and unfair decisions.
“Communal bins in the road might be convenient for the council, but they could block traffic, take away precious parking and make life harder for older and disabled neighbours.”
The council said: “We are planning to introduce communal bins in Auckland Drive. This is an operational decision as part of our ongoing work to address collection rates and health and safety in the area.
“The proposals were recently revisited but plans have taken into account feedback from our earlier consultation with residents.
“We are currently finalising proposals but will continue to engage with impacted residents and provide further information ahead of the change to communal bins.”
They obviously feel they’re ‘ special ‘…..
Well, it sounds like they’ve had a long-standing issue with bin collections, enough to encourage them to make a decent looking website; so communal bins seems like the reasonable solution, because you reducing the potential points of failure in service.
I don’t think any of the concerns reported here have any merit. Take narrowing the road for example, Auckland Drive always has cars parked along it, a communal bin isn’t going to make any material difference to the available width of the road. Assisted collections aren’t affected by the type of bin they go into, and are well established in other areas of the city which uses communal bins, so that’s just a reassurance thing, in my opinion. I don’t see flytipping substantively increasing that area, because it’s off any major routes by a significant amount. Flytippers are inherently lazy by their very nature!
Wait until they find the communal bins are rarely collected on time sometimes days or week or 2 later, rubbish stacked all around the bins bags ripped open by animals rubbish filled roast gutters and pavements, as we have in west hove Goldsmid area. Rates increase every year and get less and less