Hundreds of warning stickers and tags issued in Cheltenham to rubbish collection rule breakers
WARNING stickers and tags have been appearing on the bins of rule-breakers.
A pilot scheme, which targets home-owners who leave their green wheelie bins overflowing and bags of rubbish on the street, has been running for six months.
The results paint a picture of a town struggling to get to grips with reduced rubbish collections.
Current rules mean wheelie bins have to have lids shut when they are put out for collection and no additional bags of rubbish are allowed.
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Break the rules and you get a sticker telling you so.
Keep doing it and you get a tag and none of your rubbish taken away. Then comes the 'formal letter' and possible enforcement.
Bin collectors have been busy ever since the scheme started last year, issuing 1,257 warning stickers in St Paul's, 656 in Up Hatherley and Warden Hill and another 344 in Leckhampton.
Meanwhile, Up Hatherley and Warden Hill residents were the worst in terms of taking any notice of the stickers, with 416 more serious tags handed out.
Sixty one were given out in Leckhampton and 173 in St Paul's.
It seems the combined message of the stickers and tags has been having the desired effect in many places, however, with only seven letters being sent out in Up Hatherley and four in Leckhampton.
But 41 letters were sent out in St Paul's.
Councillor Roger Whyborn (LD, Up Hatherley), cabinet member for sustainability, said: "There is a staged process with residents getting warning stickers before we start to tag bins.
"Where tags are issued we do try to contact residents but we cannot always make contact.
"If the resident continues to present side waste or has a bin lid open then we will send a formal warning letter.
"We have had to issue very few formal letters and to date we have not had to undertake formal enforcement action."
Safety reasons have been cited by the council as to why overflowing bins cannot be emptied.
Bin men are not allowed to put their hands into bins to squash rubbish because of the risk of sharp objects.
Bins with lids open also pose a risk to operators because open lids make it difficult to safely attach the bin to lorries' lifting mechanisms.
5 Comments
by dibblebibble
Thursday, February 28 2013, 4:31PM
“I do my fair share of recycling. I usually only have 3/4 of rubbish in my wheelie bin come the evening of fortnightly collection, and low and behold, guaranteed, Monday morning my bin will be full to over flowing.
Why? Because my neighbours in the block help themselves to putting their rubbish in my bin on Collection morning, because they do not recycle as much as I do!
I would love so much to get one of these letters. I think they'd get a piece of my mind.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of rubbish and recycling...when are the Council actually going to start ordering businesses to their fair share of recycling?
I see precious little of it while working around the town centre every day!!!
Dozens of cardboard boxes, bags full of paper, thousands of bottles from clubs all being put into the back of the wagon and crushed together with no separation what so ever. Hardly fair threatening residential but doing sweet Fanny Adams about it when businesses don't ever bother.
One rule for one, and rule for another, it seems!”
by RoadWombat
Thursday, February 28 2013, 12:52PM
“If the council are going to be awkward about it, put it in your neighbour's half-empty bin! Either that or burn it, or take it into work and put it in the bins there.
It's not really difficult, is it?”
by geraint2010
Thursday, February 28 2013, 11:25AM
“Just what is the problem in this effin' world with folk like by supernova?”
by Steve_Thomas
Thursday, February 28 2013, 11:23AM
“Problems will occur where several households share a single bin. If one household habitually generate a disproportionate amount of waste, then other residents in the same building are to be denied a proper refuse service.
This is bound to cause disputes between neighbours. I can understand the safety issues with overfilled bins, but to refuse side waste in these situations is just being petty and bureaucratic.”
by supernova1
Thursday, February 28 2013, 11:18AM
“Just what is the problem in this effin' world?
We don't buy stuff, and we have a recession.
We do buy stuff, and the people employed to pick up the waste because of that purchase are worried about H&S issues!
Tell you what, pick it up, or leave the job.
There's a thousand willing to take your place, and will be even more when the borders are relaxed next year.
After all, we actually pay for it to be collected, so petty beauracracy is just that, petty.
Get over it, there's our lads and lasses getting their limbs blown off by the effin' Afghans.
Try telling THEM they're infringing H&S b0||0ck$!”