THE GREAT BIN COLLECTION SCANDAL
Desperate Brits pay for private waste firms as pick-ups drop to every three weeks
THE “basic right” of a weekly bin collection is now denied to the vast majority of households.
In 76% of areas it is a 14-day wait. Where Tory cuts bite it is 21 days.
Many now pay for private pickups or burn rubbish, says research. One said: “It’s a health hazard.” Yet it was David Cameron who called weekly pick-ups a basic right.
AS bins overflow with stinking nappies, young families are being forced to pay for private collections – or wait three weeks for the council.
The vast majority of areas, 248 of 326, now have pick-ups only every two weeks. But as councils are hit harder by cuts, six local authorities have even reduced collections to one in three.
Paramedic Wayne Lee-Oliver, 31, had no choice but to hire a private firm in Bury, Greater Manchester, after reductions.
He said: “With four young girls, we generate a lot of waste, including used nappies. It would be a health hazard to leave it sitting there three weeks. I pay for three collections, the weeks the council don’t come, on top of the £1,019-a-year council tax.”
One firm charges £25 to empty bins three times a month.
Households fear a surge in vermin, and a rise in fly-tipping is being linked to the cutbacks.
Yet during the coalition in 2010, PM David Cameron declared it a “basic right for every English man and woman to be able to put the remnants of their chicken tikka masala in their bin without having to wait a fortnight for it to be collected”.
At the same time, town hall budgets were slashed 40%. Councils felt forced to cut bin rounds.
Wigan Council made the shift to one-week-in-three pick-ups in September, joining Salford, Rochdale, Oldham and Bury. North Devon trialled it in June. Lib Dem communities spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said: “The Department for Communities and Local Government need to ensure councils have the funds they need for proper services.”
“I’ve seen reports of people burning rubbish when waiting for collections – that can’t be allowed in Britain in 2017.”
Last year, the Woodland Trust suffered its worst year for flytipping, with almost 200 incidents of rubbish being dumped.
The Local Government Association’s Martin Tett said there was no “one size fits all” solution, but councils knew a “reliable and efficient” waste and recycling service was hugely important.
A DCLG spokesman said: “It is for councils to determine how much they spend and frequency of collections.”
Survey sourced through a Freedom of Information request.