Having your household refuse collected on a weekly basis was once the norm, however when recycling schemes were introduced many local authorities, including Denbighshire and Conwy County Borough Councils, cut this back to fortnightly.
For most households this works fine, but more and more local authorities across the country are now considering axing these in favour of three or four weekly bin collections instead.
In fact Conwy County Borough Council recently announced that is is considering proposals to scrap their fortnightly collections. Denbighshire County Borough Council have not announced any changes to their collections.
Any such reduction in refuse collections ought to be a cause for great concern and I want to see any such proposals ruled out as soon as possible.
The simple fact is that many households could not manage with a three or four weekly non-recyclable waste collection, especially those with small children. There are many items which are not recyclable at all such as nappies, sanitary products and the like, and my main concern, and that of others, is that reducing the frequency of bin collections may lead to problems with litter, fly-tipping and pests.
The last thing that tourist destinations like North Wales need is an increase in vermin such as mice and rats, not forgetting the scavenger seagulls who love nothing more than rummaging through overflowing bins. As was the case in the days before wheelie bins, when people would leave their rubbish out in bin bags, our streets will be overlain with litter. Councils should be doing all they can to help improve our streets, not adding to their untidiness and demise.
Local Authorities are argue that cutting fortnightly bin collections and making them every three or four weeks will encourage recycling, but we’ve got to face facts, unfortunately not everybody is a responsible neighbour and when the bins are full, some will just dump their rubbish wherever they see fit, whether this be in their front garden or on the side of a road. We won’t see an increase in recycling, but what we will see is an increase in rodent and seagull populations, fly-tipping, litter and bad odours in our communities.
Whilst we must do everything we can to promote recycling, I’m afraid that any plans to reduce the frequency of household refuse have more to do with local authorities meeting efficiency targets rather than what is best for our communities. But reducing refuse collections is actually likely to be counter-productive as a result of extra costs associated with cleaning up fly-tipping and litter, and dealing with hundreds of extra complaints from angry residents whose services are being cut while council taxes continue to rise.
In order to protect our local environment we must do all we can to stop Conwy County Borough Council steaming ahead with their proposals, which is why I have launched a petition and Facebook Page to allow residents to make their views known to decision-makers.
We must safeguard our fortnightly collections and ensure our streets are kept clean. Everybody wants and deserves to live somewhere they can feel proud of.
I urge all residents who feel strongly about Conwy County Borough’s plans to sign the petition. We need to let the local authority know the strength of feeling in the community about this issue.
To support Darren’s campaign like his Facebook Page ‘Save Our Bin Collections’ which can be reached at Facebook.com/saveourbincollections