‘Urgent resolution’ needed after bins moved from park
A THIRD of the roads, paths and a children’s park on a massive housing estate are still not being maintained by the council a decade after they were built.
Now a community councillor living on Broadlands in Bridgend – a community of 2,300 homes – is calling on housebuilder Persimmon and Bridgend County Borough Council (BCBC) to come to an “urgent resolution”.
The problems have come to a head because Perismmon has now removed the bins it had placed in the park due to what managing director of Persimmon Homes East Wales Martin Smith said was “the amount of dog mess left in litter and grit bins, which is considered a health and safety issue”.
Councillor Ian Spiller said this has only served to compound the “huge amounts of littering” and dog fouling due to “a lack of proper bin collections which have plagued the western side of Broadlands”.
“Broadlands Residents’ Association has already acted to protect the children from dog waste, which owners put in the park bins, by funding a specific large dog waste bin which was installed by BCBC in 2012,” he said.
“To add insult to injury around 10 days ago Persimmon Homes removed all their bins from the children’s play park meaning residents are now having to fix black bags to the railings.”
Residents also carried out a litter pick to tackle the accumulating waste.
Coun Spiller said: “In 2012 we were promised by BCBC that adoption (transfer of the roads, paths and park to the authority) was imminent and the residents’ association wrote to Persimmon, BCBC and elected representatives to highlight the issues with public protection. Four years on this is still unadopted.”
He added the residents of Broadlands pay some of the highest council tax rates but receive an “inferior service”.
BCBC and Persimmon confirmed they are in regular contact over the issue of adoption.
A council spokesman said Persimmon needed to carry out work “so that particular roads and paths in Broadlands can be adopted and therefore become managed and maintained by the council”.
He said: “There are approximately a third of the roads around the newer developments on the western side of the estate that are not yet adopted.
“In addition to the roads, the central play park is another area that has yet to be adopted, and it is the responsibility of Persimmon to provide suitable bins there and empty them.
“While we cannot provide bins in the park, as it is not our land, we will be inspecting the surrounding adopted footpaths this week to ensure that there are sufficient bins in nearby streets.”
Mr Smith said Persimmon is continuing to actively pursue the transfer of highways and public open space to BCBC.
He said: “We would not normally provide bins until an area of open space is handed over to a council for adoption.
“We have had to manage the public open space and highways for more than 10 years but have been forced to remove the bins due to misuse, in particular the amount of dog mess left in litter and grit bins, which is considered a health and safety issue.
“We hope to be able to hand over the areas to the council as soon as possible, at which point the bins will be reinstated.”