A grandmother has been ordered to rip up shrubs and flowers in her front garden - to make room for new wheelie bins.And she’s not a council house tenant.
She may own her own home, but the council are determined to tell her what she should do with it regardless.
The medical secretary bought her two-bed terraced house 22 years ago and has since planted an array of conifers, lavender bushes and roses to brighten up the property.The same argument rages in my local paper pretty much every week. Some houses are simply not equipped to take these bins.
She said: 'My garden is only small but that makes it all the more precious. I spend all my time outside and have spent years getting those shrubs how I want them.
'I appreciate that we do need to recycle and that landfill prices are being hiked up but to issue us with these bins is completely absurd.
'They are a nightmare and nobody likes them. In the recent storms they were blown about all over the place.'
But that doesn’t suit the council’s ‘one size fits all, we’ll tell you what you need’ attitude.
Councillor Tony Hall, chairman of Harlow Council's Environment and Community Committee, suggested Sandra try wheeling the bins through her house.Well, yes. What a great solution! Who wouldn’t want to wheel a stinking rubbish bin through their living space?
I wonder if Harlow council is one of the ones that will be raising its council tax levels by 3%? As Quiet Man points out, the Mayor of Doncaster is having none of this. Where would you rather live?
Or more to the point, who would you rather elect?
But Tony isn’t finished showing us his empathetic side:
He said: 'It might be an option. I don't know the house but I wheel my bike through my house. Some people are obviously trying to make an issue out of this.I don’t know the size of your anus, Tony, but I’m sure there is room for a wheelie bin up there. Someone ought to find out...
'I don't know the size of her front garden but I am sure somewhere there is room for bins.'
"I don’t know the size of your anus, Tony, but I’m sure there is room for a wheelie bin up there. Someone ought to find out..."
ReplyDeleteClassic Julia, just classic. And I bet you and that lady could find a few people to help doing just that...ouch!
I do not understand England any more, don't the people have any say about their garbage collection?
ReplyDeleteA month ago my village held a public meeting to decide if we would continue with the three, yes three, garbage collections a week or reduce it to only two. We decided on two because it meant we wouldn't have to carry bags of rubbish to large bins ( 3 on my short road), instead we now have either a small, medium or large bin depending on need. This is on trial for 6 months and if everyone is happy it will continue, if not it will revert. We also have a monthly collection of large household items as well as several bottle banks and bins for plastic placed at convenient spots. All of this and my rates are less than 150 euro a year.
The guy that drives the small garbage truck lives in the village and pops into collect the bins from the old people to save them having to carry them. Now you see why I don't understand what is going on back in England. I'm in the south of France by the way.
Ivan. Aye, I live in Berlin, and our bins are emptied three or four times per week.
ReplyDeleteIt is a REAL pain in the ass having to open the gate for them at 05:00 three times per week.... oh moment, THEN we have the glass collection, the paper collection, the "Bio" collection.... all for less than €200 per year.
DISGUSTING so it is. We don't know we have been BORN so we don't.
"And I bet you and that lady could find a few people to help doing just that..."
ReplyDeleteA few? I bet we'd have enough to find a home for all of Halow's wheelie bins...
"I do not understand England any more..."
Me neither, Ivan...
"We don't know we have been BORN so we don't."
No wonder the emigration rate is up! :)
Uncle B is always saying, if somebody ran for council on the explicit platform of dialing rubbish collection back to where it was ten years ago, he she or it would win in a landslide.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is and always will be: people who hate government don't choose government for a career.
It really is high time people started standing up to these bullies. What will it take to reach a critical mass?
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, houses don't have front gardens, and many don't have separate access to their gardens. But the pavements are narrow.
ReplyDeleteThe local council is obsessed with recycling, and has recently imposed on us a *third* wheelie bin. However, somebody at the council has retained at least a few brain cells. In our neighbourhood, only one of those bins is compulsory: we are allowed to use paper bags for compostable waste and boxes for glass and plastic. (Frankly, I think they should allow alternatives to the compulsory wheelie bin too, but maybe that's too much to ask for.)
I guess Mrs St. John in Harlow is less fortunate.
Anyone know the political makeup of Harow council ?
ReplyDeleteIn Spain I believe that all household rubbish is taken to community waste sites ( like bottle banks ) which are cleared daily.
It is up to the householder how often he takes his rubbish there. This costs a few dozen Euros per annum.
"Uncle B is always saying, if somebody ran for council on the explicit platform of dialing rubbish collection back to where it was ten years ago, he she or it would win in a landslide."
ReplyDeleteI don't doubt it. It seems to have overtaken the weather on the list of 'Things The English Love To Talk About'.
"However, somebody at the council has retained at least a few brain cells. "
Halleluya! Find that man (or woman) and promote them!