Brighton & Hove's REGENCY Magazine » Cityclean

Communal Bins Overflow

REGENCY — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:14:43 +0000

I cannot claim to be surprised by the stacking up of refuse around the communal bins all over the centre of the city. Councillor Gill Mitchell, who was Labour chair of the environment committee which forced through these refuse changes several years ago, Councillor Geoffrey Theobald, the current Tory cabinet member for the environment, and CityClean assistant director Gillian Marston have all at one time or another categorically assured residents that such an overspill scenario could never occur. They argued that the communal bin collection truck only required one driver, and so this person would be easy to replace should a problem arise.

The sight and smell of the overflowing bins is truly disgusting and a serious health hazard – some residents have already spotted rats amongst the torn sacks. Let us not forget that many communal bins are sited directly outside people’s homes. What I find truly amazing is the dire management decisions taken by CityClean. Whilst the filth has been piling up around the communal bins over the past few days CityClean caged trucks could been seen driving around the central area, but only collecting the waste from litter bins. Would it not be more intelligent to task these workers with collecting the hundreds of strewn sacks around the communal bins? One would have thought that would be common sense.

Perhaps it is time for CityClean and our council to follow the lead of Jersey Council who disposed of communal bins as a failed and costly experiment. Furthermore with the lower ranks of the CityClean workforce threatened with massive pay cuts it might be more appropriate for our city council to dock the over-inflated salaries of CityClean management, who have clearly demonstrated their hopeless lack of competence and propensity for creating city-wide problems.

Some good news is that the strike has been delayed by 28 days, apparently after the personal intervention of the new chief executive, John Barradell. We shall have to wait and see if they can hammer out a long-term solution.

Letters: Public Sector Workers

REGENCY — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:04:21 +0000

Molly of Arundel Terrace wonders about the calibre of people running CityClean (Letters, Issue 12). I can tell you this much, headed by the ghastly Gillian Marston, with their perks and pensions sewn up a treat, these people are not in touch with the real world. Certainly wouldn’t have got through the door of the major private companies where I used to work at senior level.

If the persistent rumour that jobs in the public sector are at risk, all I can say is “bring it on”.

I wrote a personal letter to Gillian Marston on 30th March this year after asking for help and advice from Ian Denyer, the senior highways enforcement officer, when I met him at a recent Neighbourhood Action Group. Needless to say I never even had the courtesy of a reply, which I now understand is par for the course in her case.
Quite frankly I find the incompetence and arrogance of some of the members of this council completely unbelievable since I returned to Brighton 26 years ago, and a direct insult to the “official” figure of 2.4 million who are now without work in this country.

In conclusion we can only hope that those public servants who are unashamedly on the gravy train may soon join their ranks.

Gilly Armstrong
 York Road

Letters: Recycling Heaven

REGENCY — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:56:28 +0000

I just wanted to write to express my irritation about the amount of negativity towards fly-tipping often expressed by your readers, by these people who have nothing better to get upset about than communal bins (lucky them!).
Let me inform these people that half the furniture in my house and my girlfriend’s house was obtained from other people’s fly-tipping – it’s called recycling, and for people on low incomes, of which there are many in Brighton, it’s often the only way to obtain furniture. Not only furniture but kitchen utensils and often electrical equipment too. Would these people rather we bought everything new – as if we could afford it – therefore using up yet more natural resources and creating more junk to be dumped? Would they rather all this went to landfill?

What to them may be an ‘unsightly’ bookcase in the street is to many people the only means of obtaining such an item. In any case, where I live at least, any item dumped next to a communal bin is gone within hours, such is the need for re-using items.

I urge these people in future to think before they write.

Simon Davies 
Oriental Place

Letters: Letter To Councillor Geoffrey Theobald (Council Cabinet Member For The Environment) Regarding Communal Bins

REGENCY — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:25:27 +0000

Dear Cllr. Theobald,

Something must be done! As a Clifton, Montpelier and Powis conservation area resident, 5′ 1″ in height, I find it most difficult to use these communal bins.

The handles are stiff, dirty and an obvious germ trap. You are aware that the lids are thrown open and stay that way (not done by short people, as we can’t achieve enough force at such a low angle to enable us to throw he lids all the way open!) and yet you insist that ‘residents’ found in favour of this new, more expensive type. Difficult to believe. It’s a huge design fault. A better option would have been to have had sliding access lids with handles at the bottom of the lid.

I have yet to see one of the older style bins left open, except when over-full; the lids are too heavy and yet you claim that this isn’t so. Today, the first 6 new-style bins I saw were all open. Retro-fitting, presumably, does not come free – who’s paying for it?

The bin situated in Victoria Place is now re-sited, as it was proven that the collection vehicle couldn’t make the narrow turn. It’s been dumped, presumably without consultation, outside a house in Montpelier Street!

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen leaving their garden waste in these bins, instead of recycling, and fly tippers have come out in force and seem particularly fond of Spring Street. How many more times must we tell you and others in office that we do not want and do not need these bins in our conservation area? How much longer is it to be before you actually do something that the residents want? Yes, we have conducted our own surveys.

And, finally, would you have faith in the Council’s assisted service?

Christine Stubbs, via email

Letters: Communal Bins

REGENCY — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:22:07 +0000

Following a wholly inadequate public/domestic notification programme by Brighton Council, the city’s hitherto weekly collection of properly bagged domestic waste was terminated on 31.01.09. My address in Montpelier Crescent received no prior notification at all and, judging by the fact that the 3 large garden cupboards used for storing rubbish bags prior to weekly collection were crammed full 3 weeks later, it would appear that the majority of the 7 flats in upper floors of the house were also in a state of ignorance – so much so that 3 very large black bags which could not be squeezed into the cupboards are now decorating the front garden. What is the Council going to do about this situation?

My wife and I are in our eighties, my wife is seriously disabled and I am certainly unable to carry large bags to the new containers parked at the south end of Vernon Terrace; as it is we have to pack domestic waste in relatively small bags which I can carry that distance – provided of course that I can survive the hazardous double crossing of Vernon Terrace on which car speeds grossly exceed the 30 mph limit (which should be illegal above 20 mph in the inner city). I notified the Council of this very unsatisfactory situation by telephone (suffering the usual 10-15min. hold up before a person could be found to answer) 3 weeks ago and was assured that some action would be taken to clear the matter up. We are still waiting.

Louis Adair Roche, via email

Local History: Communal Bins Arrive

REGENCY — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:58:27 +0000

This is an article which I wrote some months ago in another local magazine on the history of the communal bin scheme. I thought it might prove of interest for some residents in the area to reproduce it here. One thing I really hate is hypocrisy, and when dealing with certain local councillors from the main political parties, you are treated to it in abundance. Labour are currently running around trying to be all warm and fuzzy towards residents, claiming that the expansion of the communal bin scheme is ‘outrageous’. Now read on …

Incredibly, it seems that certain Conservative councillors seem to have forgotten the Conservative-led scrutiny panel into the events surrounding the introduction of the communal bin “trial” in Central Brighton a couple of years ago. That panel concluded, amongst other things, that residents should be properly consulted about communal bins before they were placed in streets. Now the Conservative administration seems intent on dumping these bins all over the centre of town, and all over Kemptown. Perhaps even more astounding than that, Labour councillors Gill Mitchell, Craig Turton and Warren Morgan are trying to make political capital out of this mess, and are acting as if they were walking into the affair as wide-eyed innocents. Well … what a difference a couple of years makes … in fact all three were on the Environment Committee and all three forced these bins on residents in the centre of town with no consultation whatsoever, and continued to do so after the trial in other areas.

In late 2003 an envelope fell through my letterbox. It wasn’t addressed to me, just to “The Occupier”. I was really getting fed up of endless non-descript junk mail dropping through my door, adding to a sense of irritation whilst doing nothing for our environment. This was the time, I thought, to make a stand. I, like so many, complained about all kinds of things around the city, but realised that I never did anything about it. Now though, I could open the junk mail in my hand, find out who it was from, and then start some action about it. Little did I know that opening that envelope would take me down a completely different path – a path that led me to uncover the staggering way in which our city is run, and the contempt with which residents are held by certain factions within our council.

What in fact was contained within the envelope was a document from CityClean – the cleaning department of the council which had been formed when the refuse collection had been taken in-house in October 2001, having formerly been run by the privately-owned company SITA. SITA had suffered significant problems, including rubbish piling up in areas for days and workforce strikes, and for many residents the view was that no one could do any worse. The missive in my hand told us that our rubbish collection was changing and we would soon be enjoying a 12 month trial of a wonderful new system known as communal bins. The pictures showed six foot high containers and a person using the bin whilst displaying a smile usually exhibited by the latest recruit of some whacky south Californian cult.

I soon learnt that many of my neighbours knew nothing of this scheme – probably because CityClean had only seen fit to deliver only one letter per building – even for the many multiple occupancy properties. I also discovered that there was to be a community meeting in the local church hall a few days later. I produced a leaflet and delivered it to as many streets as I could, with several other residents. Local ward councillor Roy Pennington told the church warden that they’d only need “a few chairs” – in fact over 100 people turned out to pack the church hall. Also in attendance were Gill Mitchell, a councillor for East Brighton and the then chair of the Environment Committee, and Tim Moore from CityClean, whom I recognised as the joyous ‘resident’ using the bin in the CityClean flyer, and who was wearing the same fervent, toothy smile as previously.

Assembled residents were informed by Tim Moore that in fact they themselves had asked for these bins in a recent survey. Judging by the animosity in the room it would seem that those residents who had supposedly made such a request had given the meeting a miss. Residents argued that the bins were unsightly, unnecessary, inappropriate in a conservation area, and would also lead to a loss of parking spaces. Tim Moore told residents that there would be two exhibitions that they could attend which would tell them more about it, and that they would provide “photographic evidence” of the need for bins. At the conclusion of the meeting another resident asked if in the light of this overwhelming opposition they would cancel the trial. Gill Mitchell pursed her lips and announced the trial would continue as planned, and also commented to Regency councillor Roy Pennington, “I can’t be bothered to answer these questions”. This was the unfortunate tenet that would continue throughout the so-called trial of these containers. This was my first encounter with our elected representatives and council officers. I was amazed at the contempt with which they were treating residents, the very people who paid their salaries (many people are unaware that councillors are now paid out of local taxation on top of their expenses). However the best was yet to come.

At the two public exhibitions (attended by a scant 48 people due to the inconvenient times chosen) residents had the joy of meeting the metal beast in the ‘flesh’. But what of the “photographic evidence” Tim Moore had promised us? Well it would be unfair not to give the poor fellow points for trying – he had a picture of a single open black sack photographed in such a way that the location could have not only been anywhere in the city, but indeed anywhere in the world. However CityClean don’t just think big in terms of bins – they had paid, presumably at no small expense to the local taxpayer, to have the photo blown up and printed on card to form a handsome backdrop to their exhibition, which lasted a total of merely two hours.

But ultimately this was all based on the mysterious Best Value Review of Waste Management 2002 in which Tim Moore and Gillian Marston claimed that we had all asked for communal bins – right? Well actually, no. I obtained a copy … it certainly made interesting reading. It revealed that in fact 85% of residents had somewhere to store their rubbish prior to collection. It also showed something even more interesting: out of the choices offered to residents in the survey, communal bins were the least popular, not the most, as Tim Moore and Gillian Marston had claimed. I questioned them on this, to which they replied that it had been based on the Regency edition of the report. Fine, I said – they could give me a copy. I’m sure I do not need to tell readers that there never was any such report, and over the next few weeks I was treated by the pair to a series of reasons as to why I hadn’t received it, which were laughably pathetic and only stopped short of claiming Gillian Marston’s dog ate it. During the few meetings residents forced with Gillian Marston and Tim Moore, we were treated to some other gems by the pair: for example, did you know that people who care about conservation and heritage are “just living in the past”?!

I received a letter from the council’s head of law, Mr. Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis. I can only assume that Mr. Ghebre-Ghiorghis had previously provided legal services to some blood-thirsty Somalian warlord as his letter informed me that unless I stopped writing articles in local newsletters and removed everything from my website I would be subjected to “legal and/or other action”! I asked him to name the specific instances of supposed “defamation” and to elaborate on the “other action” but he failed to reply to my questioning. It was clear the council were just desperate to stifle any free speech. In fact they even started threatening local newsletters. All this coupled with Gill Mitchell telling us that we had been properly consulted, everyone wanted the bins, and those who opposed them were just a small “vociferous minority”.

Eventually the weight of opposition forced a council scrutiny panel to look into the bins which saw Gill Mitchell hauled over the coals and which concluded that people had not been properly informed and that any future placement of these bins should be carried out after proper consultation with the residents.

However that, and more besides, is history. What the “trial” has shown is that the bins that have been in place in the centre of town regularly overflow, and even need teams going around from CityClean every single day to collect all the fly tipping that occurs next to the bins. How can this possibly be saving money? It stands to reason that four people (that we know of) going around every day in two vehicles must cost as must as one crew collecting refuse once a week. These bins also discourage recycling – but don’t just take my word for it – in fact Gill Mitchell even admitted to this at a public meeting in Preston Park in the early days of the trial. Hardly a suitable result for a council which wishes to pride itself on doing its best for the environment?

Letters: More On Communal Bins

REGENCY — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:09:13 +0000

We are the unfortunate family outside whose listed home resides the communal bin to which Mrs Leeds refers.

We received a consultation questionnaire and vented our opposition vigorously, along with most of the other local NON multiple occupants. For the record, we are opposed to the bins on our street in principle and have never wanted to be reduced to nimbyism.

We had no response. At no point did we receive a visit regarding the site of this bin. It was dumped on us one day as a fait accompli.

All the points we raised in the said questionnaire have, in the couple of weeks since the bin arrived, been proved:

It is an eyesore, being positioned directly outside our window (see attached photograph).
It takes up a valuable parking space, as do a number of the local Z zone bins.
I have personally witnessed flytipping.
The elderly and infirm on the street are unable to use the bin and their requests to the council for the collection service have thus far fallen on deaf ears.
Certain households are not bothering to use the bins. Their rubbish bags are piled up outside houses on the pavements and not being collected.
The bin fills up and rubbish is left on the pavement right outside our front gate for the gulls to savage. This will stink in the summer thus making our frontage undesirable to use.

In addition to our points, further problems are:

There is no foot-pedal thus making manipulation even more difficult for all PLUS adding health & safety issues concerning the dirty handle.
The positioning of the lid means many people cannot reach it to close. I witness this daily. I am 5’6 and even I find it difficult to wield.
The design has no soft-close mechanism which means every time the bin is used by someone tall enough, there is a noisy bang which has at times awoken my children and ourselves and without fail makes the dog bark.
Where the parking space has not been cancelled, cars squeeze into the space nosing right up to the bin thus meaning that the bins cannot be emptied from one day to the next.

The effect on recycling targets has yet to be seen.

We feel that our quality of life has been diminished by this council decision (along with others they have made in recent times) and the responses of Cityclean and Councillor Theobald, which amount to ‘tough – just get used to it’ are nothing short of disrespectful and insulting.

We will not shut up and go away.

Janet & Seamus Haji, Upper North Street

Letters: Communal Bins

REGENCY — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:07:25 +0000

When we were first consulted about the communal bins, the residents of Clifton Road sent in a petition against them. All but 2 residents were firmly against having these bins in our Road.

Clifton Road is part of the Montpelier and Clifton Conservation area , where many of the houses are grade two listed. All the houses in this road have front gardens or a designated bin storage area, so consequently there is no need here for these bins. The same situation exists in Victoria Road.

So why, when we all said we did not want the bins, and there is no benefit for the residents of our area, are we now forced into having them? As well as being an eyesore in this conservation area, the new bins have numerous other drawbacks. Firstly, the new cheaper version of the bin (without the pedal), is clumsy and difficult to operate. Indeed, for people who are not tall enough it is difficult to reach the handle. For the elderly and those less strong it proves hard to open. Holding the lid whilst simultaneously throwing in a full rubbish bag is a difficult task for some residents. Because of these design faults, the bins and frequently left open. I can only imagine what smell this will cause in the summer. Furthermore, the bins take up valuable space in an area where parking spaces are few and far between. I hope that the obvious faults with this scheme and the overwhelming bad feeling about it, will convince you to end it.

Jakki Joyce
Clifton Road