Plans for left out bins to incur fines
Thursday 22nd April 2010, 11:28AM BST.
Families who leave wheelie bins on Black Country pavements could be fined.
Those who ‘persistently’ flout rules to keep bins outside homes would face ‘enforcement action.’
The move, by Walsall Council, is the latest in a series of measures imposed on bin collections in the Black Country.
Some councils have brought in fortnightly collections and threatened to fine people filling bins with the wrong kind of rubbish.
The latest move is in response to complaints from residents about bins causing a foul-smelling eyesore. But the proposal has been criticised as being heavy-handed.
Guidelines issued by Walsall Council ask for families to “wheel bins to the border” of their properties by 7.30am for weekly collections and take it away once emptied to “ensure it does not become an obstruction.”
A report from the council’s environment scrutiny panel states members were “keen to ensure that enforcement action could be taken against residents who persistently left bins on the pavement.”
That action includes a series of warnings and, in extreme circumstances, a fine.
Councillor Dennis Anson, acting chairman of the environment scrutiny panel, said: “It seems to be a problem mainly in terraced streets, where there is not as much room.
“Wheelie bins in the street all the time looks terrible, it creates a right stink and it’s just inconsiderate.”
Resident Kathleen Millerchip, aged 74, said: “My next door neighbour brings my bin in.
“But if someone is out at work all day and doesn’t have a good neighbour to bring it in, that’s really bad to be fined.”
West Midlands TaxPayers’ Alliance today claimed the proposed fines could be simply a “revenue raiser.”
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On the surface it seems like a common sense approach. Residents have called for these measures, but what constitutes a persistent nuisance hasn’t been stated.
One a problem has been identified the fine is also a last resort. So as long as this applies to people other than those who are at work or otherwise unavailable to remove their bins in a reasonable amount of time, I am for it. Bins left outside invite vermin (including yobs and burglars), create a sting as well as an eyesore. Shouldn’t have to come to this but there again some people are scruffbags who don’t care. Fine ‘em.
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(Wheelie bins in the street all the time looks terrible, it creates a right stink and it’s just inconsiderate)
let me get this right it causes a right stink if left up the front so wouldnt it create a stink if put round the back well isnt this a health hazard,wouldnt it have been better just to say it looks terrible for pr reasons
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I presume that Forrester Street will be one of the first too be targeted! We walked along there on Sunday to visit the Manor hospital and had to walk in the road as every house had two or three bins outside on the footpath.
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why was the bins out on a sunday?? is that a bin day.so yes they should be targeted first
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Wheeling bins to the ‘border’ of a property is fine in the extensive gardens and drives of properties in leafy Streetly and Aldridge, but on the Black Country side of the borough many people live in terraced streets and have no choice but to put them out on the pavement.
I expect a leaflet from Walsall Council outlining exactly where they want me to put my bin or I will continue to leave it in the only practical place.
Typical Tory council picking on the less well off?
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is that sting or stink
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In my experience, as a regular runner around the streets of Walsall, the householders wheel the bin to the edge of the property and leave it in a manner that does not cause an obstruction. It’s the binmen who leave the bins all over the footpaths, causing an obstruction: i have even seen cases where they have left bins lying on their sides or in the road! Is it therefore fair to fine someone who is out at work all day, who left their bin at the curtiledge of their property but has no control over what the binmen do with their bin?
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I agree left out bins can be a nuisance but I wonder what they plan to do in the case of communal residences that have communal bins?
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our bin is not emptied until after we have all gone to work so it is out until after 5pm
the bin men leave in the middle of the footpath instead of by our wall where we leave it
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Can they also enact fines for bin-men who drag the wheelie-bins more than 50 meters from where they’ve been left. Mine travels so far on bin day that I’m thinking of fitting it with GPS tracking so I can see what adventures it’s been on. I don’t even live on a narrow cul-de-sac.
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What happens if i put the bin on my drive, and then the bin man leaves it on the path? Whos fault is that?
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I saw the headline. I thought “Walsall Council”. I was right! Why so much bile?
Where can one go to get this ‘I’m better than you’ jab?
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Well if walsall council emptied the bins weekly they wouldnt smell would they,
and as regards enforcement action its a sign they are desperate for money, again a simple way to make dosh as none of them would know how to run a council if it hit them over the head.
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Can i fine Walsall Council if they don’t empty my bin? or leave it in the wrong place? will i recieve a refund on my huge council tax bill?
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Great – as long as binmen incur equal fines for leaving them in middle of the pavement instead of returning them to my property
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Think this is just another “underhand” way to get money out of residents by giving them a fine…Where i live the pavements are very narrow and what do the council think up…?…We will empty the Household,,Garden waste,,& reclycling bin all on the SAME day….!!!!!,,More Clutter on the Footpath…!!!!..A lot of householders are out all day,,,are they going to fine them also….?
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UTTER RUBBISH .if you are at work till say 6-7-8 oclock pm and your fined its not your fault the bin is still out side on the street…my bin is some times more than 4 doors away when i get home to collect it because thats where the bin men have left it..so is it fair i get fined for that..get the bin men to put the bins on the kirbside where we have to leave them..what do you expect though from a council thats nearly been bankrupt more than once..get proper workers not agency staff and save us some money…
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Think you’ll find that agency staff are cheaper than permanent ones, they don’t pay them pension and they dont spend all their time off sick!!
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What a good idea.
It’s about time the great unwashed of Walsall were brought into line. Smelly people with their smelly bins hanging around the streets.
Also by fining them they won’t be able to buy their fags either!!!
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Amazing,considering how when bins are emptied, the binmen leave them strewn around the street and in the road….and they moan at residents about causing an obstruction. If they don’t want bins to smell how about emptying them every week instead of two weeks – oh sorry that was a council idea wasn’t it?
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No.16. You’ve had the bad-bile Council jab!
Let’s not blame the bin men. I honestly think they do a brilliant job at high speed. Our refuse and recycling depots are superb, manned by friendly staff. It would be stupid to upset those workmen, this is not their fault. How about we ask the Council who proposed and passed this scheme? Then we can give them a bypass at voting time. Come on E&S, you can find out easier than we can.
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they cant fine us at all its called stealth tax and even council tax isn’t legal if you look into it properly
ask walsall council to send you a breakdown of exactly who and what your council tax goes to and tell them you arent paying it until you recieve the document you are entitled to see and see how long you dont pay council tax for !
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What’s all the fuss about, I would rather have wheelie bins left out rather that loads of black bags which can be subject to our foxy friends opening
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we had an occation when our bin men could not be bothered to drive past the contractors who were laying some pipes in our street
They only had to ask the Guys to move their truck and they could have collected our refuse but no they just drove past.
our bins remained outside not knowing when a collection was going to take place
get the operation right before implamenting a
fine system .
must dash I think I hear a refuse truck on its way
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I think the enforcement action is intended for people who leave their bins out all week – this happens regularly by us and occasionally when yobs go by they knock the bins over causing rubbish to blow down the street, creating a mess. It is also not a very nice sight to be greeted with whenever you step outside your front door, or have visitors.
Regarding communal bins, surely people who live in flats can work together and take these round the back – what happened to community spirit!
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I think this is a great idea. Living on a terraced street I am sick and tired of having to walk around bins that haven’t been emptied because the people in the street have put rubbish in brown bins, etc,(hello,there are different coloured bins for a reason) as well as those that leave their bins on the pavement all week. It is simple laziness that prevents these sort from walking out their front door and moving the bins to the communal alleyways.
This leads to yobs or late night revellers on a Friday or Saturday night setting alight bins full of rubbish in front of houses that face directly on pavements. I am sick of complaining to the Council only to have a letter through my letterbox stating it is against the law to not remove the bins (6 so far) yet they do not follow up on their warnings.
PS Noel-they can fine as it is in the Highways Code,look it up under obstruction of pathways, and they do send a breakdown of what your council tax pays in the yearly bill. It is also on the council website.
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I know to quite a few old parlour type terraced housed in walsall that have not got a back gate in the conventional sense, and no front gardens and have to leave there bins outside the front of their properties all the time,and you are right about the bin men dropping the bins off not where they came from, this is in my opinion because the driver of the wagon is always on the move so they bin men have to keep up with the driver,but if youve got bad weather or holidays you have to leave it out there anyway until they collect it on overtime,the same people who live in these terraced houses also run the gauntlet of other people putting their own rubbish in the bins as they are passing,and with the new recycling rules wont get the bin collected if it hasnt been sorted correctly,and of course it getting knocked over by youths, i dont know what alternative they will have in very narrow streets where its hard for the bin men to get down anyway.
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