Litter picking groups raise concerns about plans to take away bins

Ted Peskett Local Democracy Reporter

Litter pickers have raised concerns about a council’s plans to take away public bins from a city’s residential streets.

The proposal is one of a number of ideas Cardiff Council is currently asking residents about in a public consultation on how it will bridge a £30m budget gap in the next financial year.

Other proposals include moving black bin bag collections to once every three weeks and charging for garden waste collections.

“Big mistake”

One litter picker called the proposal “counter-productive” and said it could have “horrendous” consequences.

Fiona McAllister of Keep Grangetown Tidy said: “I think it would be a big mistake and I would wonder what sort of city we are going to become.”

She added: “We have real issues with litter and flytipping. If they cut back, it is going to make the situation a lot worse.”

To justify the proposal, Cardiff Council said public bins on residential streets are not used often enough and that they are targeted by flytippers.

“I don’t think that is valid at all,” said Fiona.

“I don’t think I have ever seen an empty bin in Grangetown. If anything, I think they need to empty them more often.

“If you take the bins away, people will just flytip where the bins were.”

A fly-tipping action plan was brought in by Cardiff Council to support residents and incidents can be reported on the local authority’s website.

Fiona said this is a “positive”, but added that more needs to be done.

Impact

Another litter picking group, Keep Roath Tidy, said the council’s proposal will have a significant impact on the volume of litter on Cardiff’s streets.

The group, which has been helping to keep the streets of Roath clean for eight years, said they already have a big problem with littering in Roath.

A Keep Roath Tidy spokesperson said: “We go out weekly and collect up to a thousand bags of litter a year.

“Local residents have been stopping us and talking about the proposed budget cuts and none so far think this is a good solution.

“Roath is a very densely populated area and has always had a major problem with litter often linked to residents not putting the right items in the bags, dumping rubbish bags around trees and general fly tipping.

“The fly tipping however is more prevalent around back lanes.

“The new council gates have helped tackle this issue in some areas however it is still an issue across the rest of Roath.

“Removing council bins won’t change this and we believe more focus should be on education and enforcement.”