My local council has started providing wheelie bins for everyone in the borough. Instead of clean, tidy, obstacle free front gardens and pavements we are about to be blighted by the further degradation of our 'society' with neighbours now forced to display their human waste in front of their houses.
I have searched for but cannot find any primary or secondary legislation that gives the council any power to require a householder to move the bins from the pavement once delivered. Legal ownership of the bins remains with the council and any allegation of obstructing the footpath should be directed at the council provided a householder never moves a bin inside their boundary.
A recent case in Liverpool upheld this argument by a householder.
I intend to leaflet my borough advising everyone that they can charge rent to the council for use of their property if they store bins within the curtilage of their hereditament.
Can anyone think of an argument against my proposition that a council will be ultra vires if it attempts to force storage within the boundary of private property? Could there be implied easements/wayleaves for example? many thanks.
People round here put black bin liners out only on the morning of collection. Some put them out the night before. Look online at photos of residential suburbs in previous decades and contrast with overfilled wheelie bins on the same streets today. Okay - not exactly 'human waste' - but I just don't want to see my neighbours' detritus and people used to be better than to feel comfortable displaying theirs to others.
If they want to give us three different coloured liners - then there's no problem. How much are these wheelie bins costing and what bribes are the companies paying who make/supply them?
Anyone got any legal arguments in favour of the council yet?
I didn't realise wheelie bins weren't universal! Where do you keep the rubbish before collection day? And aren't bin bags more likely to encourage vermin; being (I imagine) much easier to get into than a wheelie bin?
If your street currently uses bin bags the chances are these are left outside the back of your house and then brought into the street on bin day. These collections of bags encourage vermin/foxes to root through. People would generally keep their wheelie bin beside the house and only move it into the street on bin collection day. I do not know of anyone who leaves there wheelie bin out all the time, adding rubbish to it as they go.
Mrs LeeG, what about people in terraced houses? Even then I suppose they could put them in the back garden and wheel them through the house on collection day.
We have three bins now; a black one, a black one with a blue lid (all recycling) and a green one (garden and kitchen waste) the blue lid one is collected every week and the black and green ones on alternate weeks. Works very well and can't imagine having piles of bags of rubbish outside our back door, think I'd be complaining about that to be honest!
tigerlelly; most terraced houses in my area have an alley between each house which runs from the back garden to the path so people generally keep their bins in the back and wheel them through the alley on collection day.
Tigerlelly not sure to be honest, i use to live in a tennemant house and the wheelie bins were left out the back and the bin men went through the close, out the back, brought the bins out, emptied them and took the bins back out the close. I guess this isnt normally the case. Now i live in a detached, we put the bins out to the street (and neighbours) and our neighbour brings them in. Never really thought about terrace houses, going to need to pass one now and see if there are bins outside them!
In my my town we hade wheelie bins for at least 20 years, we have a big one for recyclables and a small one for the rest, works well. I'd certainly prefer that to bags of refuse that would get ripped open by vandals foxes etc. To answer your question, if you want the bin emptied you have to play the game. if you don't store your waste in a wheelie bin then you'll have to store it somewhere or take it to the tip yourself. The council will presumably only empty the bins so I'd imagine you'd be turning your property into your own tip. That may well involve more serious environmental transgressions, probably prosecutable.
We have green wheelie bins, they are for garden and food waste only. Other household rubbish goes in black sacks, and recycling ie plastic and paper go in pink sacks.
the problem with bins is each town has a differnet set up we have a black bin for rubbish, brown for garden waste , blue for paper and green for glass and plastic
100 yards away in manchester they have a blackbin for rubbish, holdall bag for paper, plastic box etc
i think the bins are great, well the black one is emptied once a fortnight
as for leaving your bin out have a look at this link
Excellent link Dr Filth - thanks. Pity that guy didn't fight the case. If the council places the bins on the pavement outside your property, and they own them, and you don't move them - how can you be obstructing the footpath? Some good points about where to leave rubbish until collection. I have lived in places without a garden so you do need a container outside for those. Terraced houses without a garden are most in need of a bin I agree. We store bin bags in a dustbin in the back garden and carry them through the house on collection day.
There needs to be some way to cover and hide them in places where they have to be stored at the front. In Arcachon (near Bordeaux) the council is digging holes so bins get sunk into the ground when not being collected.
Looking on the bright side - at least we don't live around Naples.
The bins should only be outside for a short while on collection day - what is the problem with that? If it's too much for you to wheel it out and back in again then maybe you could ask some kindly neighbour to help. Otherwise, it sounds like laziness and a refusal to move with the times. Stop being stubborn and get on with it.