U-turn on wheelie bins
At the South East Area Committee in August 2004, Cllr Stuart Craft proposed that wheelie bins be adopted for Blackbird Leys to reduce the amount of litter ending up on the street and in people’s gardens.
Littlemore Labour Councillor John Tanner was quick to condemn the suggestion, arguing that he had always opposed wheelie bins as ‘they encourage people to throw away more rubbish’ instead of recycling.
If a week is a long time in politics then a year and a half is more than enough time to bring about a U-turn.
When Oxford City Council came under fire in the local press for taking two weeks to collect rubbish on the estate after Christmas, Cllr Tanner (now in charge of refuse collection) was quick to reverse his position, hurriedly announcing the imminent introduction of wheelie bins.
Not only that, but Tanner now says that wheelie bins would actually allow the council to increase the amount of rubbish being recycled.
Most residents welcome the introduction of wheelie bins, while realising that they won’t necessarily solve all the problems of discarded litter on the estate.
However, many are concerned about Cllr Tanner’s latest proposal to collect rubbish from the wheelie bins only once every two weeks.
This will inevitably lead to some households piling rubbish around full-up wheelie bins, some of which will scatter in the wind or be carried off by pets.
Although it is the responsibility of each household to ensure rubbish isn’t left lying around, the small minority of residents who fail to do this end up making the estate untidy for everyone.
Reducing the frequency of collections is bound to make the problem worse.
Leys Independent, issue 31, February 2006
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