Express & Star

It stinks! Rubbish and anger pile up after council says no to a bigger bin

A disabled man claims his council's refusal to give him a bigger bin has left him with rotting rubbish beside his home.

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Stephen Long with the rubbish piling up at the side of his home in Walsall Wood

Stephen Long and his partner Jane Taylor moved into the property in Paul's Coppice in Walsall Wood six months ago, but the pair have struggled to throw all their rubbish away in a smaller bin, which came with the property.

Both are disabled – with Mr Long using walking sticks to get around and Miss Taylor relying on a wheelchair.

And now black bin bags have begun to pile up after Walsall Council bin men started to refuse to take away the extra rubbish they couldn't fit in their bin.

Mr Long said: "The bin man said 'we're not allowed to do it anymore because we are not allowed to take excess rubbish.'

"We phoned up the council and I asked whether the council could help us, but they said 'there's nothing else we can do.'

"I'm not a single person – I'm living with my partner. We have got grandchildren who come round at weekends so there is excess rubbish.

"And the council is saying they won't give us a bigger bin. There is going to be a nice odour come the summer.

"We cannot afford to pay for a person to take it away for £20, £30, £40. I think it should be the council's job to move it. What are we paying council tax for? If they gave us a bigger bin it would be normal, we would be back to normal."

Walsall Council refused more than 2,500 people's calls for a larger bin ahead of waste collection changes introduced last year. It switched to alternate weekly collections to save around £1 million a year.

Between May and October, 20,916 people applied for a bin bigger than the standard 140 litre one, but out of those 2,508 were turned down.

Councillor Chris Jones, portfolio holder for Clean and Green, said: "I'm sorry to hear that this couple are having difficulties – I do wish that they'd approached us for advice.

"If their health conditions are such that their existing bin provision is inadequate, this is something that we can look into."

The council undertook an advertising campaign in the weeks and months leading up to the changes last October warning people that their rubbish collections would be less frequent.

It said the decision to decrease the number of collections was determined by the need to save £85 million over four years.

Walsall residents were asked how to make the savings between October and December 2014. By February 2015 the authority had approved emptying bins fortnightly rather than weekly.

In another consultation, which ran between August and September 2015, the council was told people wanted to keep bins as they were.

Stephen Long with the rubbish piling up at the side of his home in Walsall Wood
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