Bins not emptied in street due to parked cars

FAMILIES HIT OUT AT COUNCIL’S STANCE

RESIDENTS in a Derbyshire street are gobsmacked at being told their bins will not be collected due to parked vehicles blocking access for lorries.

A leaflet distributed by Amber Valley Borough Council was posted to residents in Park Street, Ripley, informing them bin collection crews would return on a different day, providing access was not restricted.

Park Street is an access-only road, but residents say the route is a popular “rat-run”, particularly during school drop-off each morning and the post-work commute in the evening. They say motorists looking to avoid paying to park in the town centre sometimes park on the road, compounding the access problems.

An elderly resident who has lived in the street for 40 years, and did not wish to be named, said access issues had been persisting “for far too long”.

She said: “Children walking to school and people with disabilities have to go in the road to get around parked cars. We have paid to keep our car in a garage for 40 years just to keep it off the road. It is as bad as I have ever seen it now, and it is a danger.

“People block the pavement and sometimes we can’t get out of our gate. It is getting worse and worse and worse, because everybody has got two cars now instead of one.

“Lots have had wing mirrors taken off. It is such a shame, it would be nice if people stuck to the rules.”

A resident, who only wished to provide his first name, David, has lived in the street for six years and said there had never previously been issues with collecting bins – apart from during periods of heavy snow and at times during the pandemic.

He said: “Last week they were collected, but the week before they said they could not collect the bins and would come back the following day to try again. As you will have seen, there are access only signs at both ends. It seems strange that they (Amber Valley Borough Council) have now started having issues when it has never happened before and it has always been like this, it is just laughable.

“Bin collection staff should be taking photos of vehicles which are blocking the road and sending those pictures to Derbyshire police, access is a part of the law. The situation is in the council’s hands too.

“The letter can’t be enforced, just like the access-only signs are not enforced. It is just frustrating. It is no criticism of the bin men at all, who do a fantastic job, but I think they are under pressure to do more and more with less and less crew.”

James Scott, an NHS manager who has lived in the street for 14 years, said emergency vehicles and delivery vans had always been able to gain access, and bin lorries had always found a way to make collections.

He said bin lorries would be driven halfway down to collect waste from half the properties, and then they would loop around the block to enter the lower half of the street to collect the rest.

Mr Scott said: “There is obviously not much parking, so a lot use this street, people use this street as a ratrun too and it is too narrow for that. The rat-run thing is the big thing.

“When we got the letter we were concerned about it, it was a really hot day and we worried the bins would get very smelly. We pay our council tax and we want our refuse to be collected in a timely manner.”

Chloe Anthony, a horse-riding instructor who has lived in the street for four years, said: “We were told the bin lorries wouldn’t fit and they were refusing to empty the bins.

“The access is bad, sometimes we get blocked in and with big vehicles like we have it is harder to get out. The bin lorries usually just loop around to get each side.”

The council was approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.

In Marlpool, Heanor, last week, residents said they had not had their bins collected for nearly a month – also due to supposed access issues caused by parking.

In response, the council said: “There has been a driver shortage recently, specifically over the last two weeks, and that has had an effect on certain areas. Regarding the first week, we had access problems which we are addressing currently to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”