Forum Topic

Petition Against the Wheelie Bins

There is now a petition on the Hounslow council website:http://petitions.hounslow.gov.uk/wheeliebinsPlease sign up and pass on the link, to get rid of these Aliens

Sharron Clarke ● 3913d34 Comments

Brilliant suggestion.  This is what many people use and have used.  I think it is just a control thing.

Philippa Bond ● 3875d

When we first got a letter from Hounslow Council i emailed them to say i didn't want one. Thought it all a bit ironic really .....i.e, rubbish, recycling, REDUCING PLASTIC!?! So we don't have one and we don't want one. They're big ugly & pointless. How about bringing back good old fashioned METAL dustbins? Now there's an idea .........and i only want a small one please!! lol

Lin Hale ● 3884d

Careful Phil...they might just read that and bring them back out of spite!

Keith Iddon ● 3890d

Well Notting Hill Housing Trust must read this forum (or get someone to read it to them) as this afternoon we are missing our double divan and chest of drawers.  It's a shame in a way as they'd been with us for so long I had begun to grow attached to them.

Phil Andrews ● 3891d

To be a complete success they would need to be big enough to take settees and mattresses!  Couldn't/didn't he see the muffled call for help with larger recycling from Sarah's brilliant photo of a mattress stuck in the mouth of the plastics recycling bin at Morrisons!They make the streetscene more threatening and are a hands off way of pulling people who have so far ignored the call to reduce their waste and recycle into line.  Council taxpayers should realise that they will save more money if they don't buy more food than they need and don't waste it.  Just learning the difference between the Best Before and Use By Dates helps with this as does a lot of the info on:  http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/content/portions-and-planning  (and the Scotland one is good - they are streets ahead of England)and http://www.therubbishdiet.org.uk/http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/attachment/expiry.pdf(The fridge poster above re labelling dates is great but NOT completely up to date in that the FSA now say that we can eat eggs a few days after their Best Before Date if we cook them well.  (That's an excuse for a cake.))

Philippa Bond ● 3891d

In the case of the West Middlesex I would respectfully suggest that Councillor Curran, as Leader of the Council and as the relevant ward councillor, might wish to begin by contacting Notting Hill Housing Trust, the social landlord managing the estate, to remind them of their responsibilities.As a tenant of NHHT my feeling is that its officers lack the training and in many cases the basic common sense to deal proactively with any problem falling outside the remit of their specific and very narrow brief.By way of an example we recently received a communication from NHHT advising us that we were underpaying our rent by 1p (one pence) per week, and thereby falling into arrears.  The tone of the communication was threatening, and suggested an assumption that this was the result of some deliberate act of avoidance on our part rather than a very simple and rather minor oversight.  They are not trained to differentiate between a case such as ours and that of somebody who routinely fails to meet their commitments.These same people installed some lockers on our estate some six months or so ago for us to store our bicycles, but they have as yet declined to give us the keys to access them because apparently to do so would be a "security risk".In all probability NHHT officers visiting the West Middlesex (usually to steal our doormats and shoes on account of them being a "fire hazard") have not yet been told that the settees and wardrobes strewn around the estate are not actually supposed to be there and therefore think they are an integral part of the natural street scene.If Councillor Curran wants the help of his long-suffering constituents in bringing these issues to the landlord's attention I am sure he will have no shortage of volunteers.

Phil Andrews ● 3891d

"Nevertheless, Cllr Curran has said that "no quarter" will be given to fly tippers..."Dream on - how is he going to catch them?  This is planet Hounslow we are talking about

Steve Taylor ● 3891d

"Council leader Steve Curran said: "We introduced wheelie bins to make our streets cleaner, increase the recycling rate and save council taxpayers money."So its a total failure then isn't it?

Steve Taylor ● 3891d

I think that the "quarter" Curran was referring to is the West Mid Estate.JL

Jim Linwood ● 3892d

"Nevertheless, Cllr Curran has said that "no quarter" will be given to fly tippers..."Really?  I'd love him to come over to the West Mid estate in Isleworth at any random time of his choosing.  There's more furniture over here than at DFS in the January sales.

Phil Andrews ● 3892d

The situation has got worse since the introduction of wheelies:http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/wheelie-bin-roll-out-hounslow-plagued-8278849Nevertheless, Cllr Curran has said that "no quarter" will be given to fly tippers...JL

Jim Linwood ● 3892d

http://www.therubbishdiet.org.uk/wastetrain/

Philippa Bond ● 3892d

Sydney appears to have moved on:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFIzVAbJNG4

Philippa Bond ● 3892d

I'm in Enfield Road too, Gerard. I responded to the letter from Cllr Curran (put through all our doors dated 14/11) copying Hounslow recycling, saying our property wasn't suitable for a wheelie bin. They sent someone out to look, and agreed, so now we're back to black bag collection (when they get round to picking up our wheelie - there's a backlog of collections!).It's definitely worth dropping them a line...

Ann Haddleton ● 3892d

I live in Enfield Rd, TW8, a street with cottages and very small front gardens. I don't need a wheelie bin and I don't want one in my front garden. The garden is too small to have a five foot plastic box in it as well as a green recycle box and green bags and white bags. LB Hounslow offered no consultation on this, they knew it would be rejected, and now the road looks awful with people having to house these horrible looking bins. They need to take them away and if they must have bins in the street come up with something more suitable as the current solution is an eye sore.

Gerard Callaghan ● 3892d

Odd that, I watched yesterday as the collectors took my neighbour's refuse out of their wheelie and put it in ours and then emptied it! They just make it up as they go along I think.

Vanessa Smith ● 3894d

Yes, there is no consistency. My neighbour told me the bin men had told him a few weeks ago that they were not allowed to lift bags out of the wheelie due to health and safety (bending into the wheelie to lift heavy bags etc) so all wheelies needed to be mechanically lifted and emptied into the truck. This week I watched them and strangely they emptied some by hand and mechanically lifted some. The only logic I could see being applied was to get  the job done as quickly as possible. I don’t have a problem with that but it seemed to me that the original ‘health and safety’ excuse,  for only emptying mechanically, has gone out the window and they just get on with it as they please.

Steve Taylor ● 3894d

I was amused the first time our wheelie bin was emptied. It only contained two lightweight black bags but the bin was taken to the lorry and mechanically emptied. It would have been more sustainable if the bags had been manually lifted out of the bin and thrown into the back of the lorry.JL.

Jim Linwood ● 3894d

Yes, but if we are keeping it all in perspective - then it really does matter whether you have space for one or can live without one as you already recycle practically everything in the recycling services provided.  Obviously there are quite a few people who still don't recycle all that they could just using the kerbside services let alone the others available.For many they will now have extra mixed rubbish space.  I don't think that was the Council's intention.

Philippa Bond ● 3895d

I know and appreciate that wheelies don't suit all homes, but nevertheless the point being made was one of keeping these things in perspective, they're only bins after all!

Vanessa Smith ● 3895d

Sorry, my mistake...noted

Rakesh Patel ● 3896d

That isn't what Vanessa said is it David ?.  She expressed a view that you don't agree with, she didn't say she wasn't affected.You're the only one going on about how you pay so much for your Council Tax...as though the rest of us don't.Not saying I agree or disagree with the wheelie bin issue, but Vanessa is quite right about how no matter what Councils do, there will be always be some residents who think that on a particular issue the Council is wonderful, and some residents who think that on the same issue the Council is terrible.

Adam Beamish ● 3896d

HI Vanessa Maybe the wheelie bin does not affect, but the last thing I need is a green thing outside my house. As it is most houses in the area have small front gardens, and sorry, I dont it to be covered with green bin. Because it does not affect you, it does not mean other people are not affected. I pay so much for my council tax and all they do is waste it on people who need hand outs or on foolish developments...

Rakesh Patel ● 3896d

It seems simple common sense.  Deploy the things where it is prudent to do so.Streets with driveways and verges with dwellings that can accommodate wheelie bins safely should make for a faster collection and a tidier street. Assuming residents put the things away afterwards. There are plenty of places up and down the country where people simply don't bother and the streets look dishevelled, unkempt and dirty.But terraced streets with no adequate parking, gardens or access are not suitable for  these types of bin. They will be almost impossible to use as intended for collection, risking damage to private vehicles and property and will most importantly slow down the collection speed.The difficulties in trying to regularly clean these bins out in confined spaces will present a huge health hazard and they will be a constant eyesore and a dangerous obstruction over the collection time period.If LBH were serious about some of the issues, rather than being stitched up by the desires of the contract holder to sell a load of bins and conversion equipment from their own subsidiaries, then they would have not gone down such a route.This shows a degree of incompetence and gullibility on the part of the officers and the lack of ability amongst councillors to ask incisive and pertinent questions and get clear answers. Which if they have a gram of common sense should be self evident.The better simpler option would be for the council to sell and have authorised resellers a strong black bag that meets a specification.In some disticts bags now have a solution impregnated into them that deters vermin like rodents and foxes.The bags could be sold at cost price and distributed during the plastics collection when weight loads on vehicles are lighter.But I think that most people recycle most stuff and a black box (like the green one) in which to drop a back bag or two into would suffice and be enough to stop the bags being left in a vulnerable state. That is easy to move about and clean and put out of the way until needed.

Raymond Havelock ● 3898d

I agree 100% with Susan, I really could not believe the extent of the hoo-ha kicked up in Chiswick over the wheelies. Anyone would think it was the end of civilisation as we know it to read some of the near hysterical outpourings on W4. I'm not sure if there is some sort of collective paranoia or persecution complex when you live in W4 but perhaps it is just a case of too much time on their hands? All I know is the council cannot ever do right whatever they try. We like our wheelie and wish we'd had them years ago, so there!

Vanessa Smith ● 3898d

If you haven't got anything at all at present, a wheelie bin is obviously a good idea. Personally I've got a black dustbin which takes two bags and that generally does me.

Ian Speed ● 3898d

'Foxes wouldn't rip a bag apart if they didn't smell food which should be in the food bin, locked.'I'm not so sure: they are not stupid creatures and know that black bags often contain food, even if they can't smell it. Anyway, it's not possible to scrape every last scrap of food from containers.

Susan Kelly ● 3898d

Foxes wouldn't rip a bag apart if they didn't smell food which should be in the food bin, locked. The bin men used to leave quite a bit of litter after them tho' as was.

Keith Iddon ● 3898d

I am delighted to have a wheelie bin, for the reasons outlined above: no more bags ripped apart by our neighbourhood fox. I do see that some houses are not suitable for them, but that's no reason to make out that they are the devil's work.

Susan Kelly ● 3898d

This is excellent news - very often houses with small front areas are wholly inappropriate for these bins, although I have to say Hounslow aren't the worst in bulk terms. When I lived in Hornsey for a short time, the wheely bins there used to dominate the front of Victorian terraces and spoil the look of the road.

Ian Speed ● 3899d

As per my post above, I responded to Steve Curran's letter, and received a reply today, saying our house was indeed unsuitable for a wheelie bin. We've now been marked as a black bag collection property, and they'll be collecting the bin asap. It's definitely worth writing if, like us, you have no space to store your bin!

Ann Haddleton ● 3899d

If you have somewhere to store a wheelie bin, I think they're great, but ours is currently blocking the (pretty narrow) access to our front door. Short of keeping it in the garden and wheeling it through the house each week (which isn't going to happen) it's extremely impractical for us. I know you've access from your garden, Vanessa, and if we did too I'd be very happy with it. There's no grip to get hold of here - just a legitimate gripe :)A letter from Steve Curran delivered yesterday stated "Only those properties with space for a wheelie bin will receive them. If you have no space you will not get a wheelie bin." I've responded, and await his reply...

Ann Haddleton ● 3912d

A petition against a hygienic way of storing your binbags until collection day? Why? I would have thought people would be only too pleased to have them? Keeping foxes from ripping the bags to shreds and leaving all manner of filth in their trail? I don't have this facility as I have a bin cupboard, but my parents have just received theirs and are very happy that the entire road wont get to see what they have munched their way through in a week, which usually happens when the foxes have had a delve in..Mind you, oh dear, shouldn't tell you this, but I lived in Derbyshire many years ago ( for a very short time.. damn cold in the winter)and they had wheelie bins back then.. A friend of a friend unfortunately murdered his lover, and dumped him in the wheelie bin..Not the best use of a wheelie bin, but when I saw that LBH are giving them to residents, it did bring back awful memories. Please just put your rubbish in them everyone!!

Sharon Trevor ● 3913d

Why assume that everyone is against wheelies? We certainly aren't - granted our houses are more suited to them, but quite honestly I do think a lot of people need to get a grip. They are only refuse bins for goodness sake.

Vanessa Smith ● 3913d