We need to have wheelie bin debate before South Holland is ‘years and years behind’

A councillor believes now is the time for the district to have its wheelie bin debate, following news of a shake-up to refuse collection across the area.

South Holland District Council announced earlier today that wholesale re-routing changes – that will affect all homes in the patch – will come into force early next month.

While Coun Rob Gibson, leader of the Independents, welcomed the announcement, saying ‘something needed to happen’ he doesn’t want to council to end up ‘years and years behind’ other authorities.

“The question of wheelie bins has not come up yet although I do feel that conversation is there to be had,” he said after today’s announcement.

“I don’t normally sit on the fence but I’m not sure personally whether I like them or not.

“Listening to residents, some are saying ‘we want wheelie bins as soon as possible, I’m fed up of cats and crows ripping my bags open and having to pick up all my rubbish again as it’s everywhere’.

“But I’m also listening to people saying ‘I’ve got nowhere to put a wheelie bin, do I have to drag it through my house as I’ve got nowhere to store it?’”

Despite mixed feedback, Coun Gibson believes now is the time for the debate to be settled.

“At some point we need to have that conversation,” he added.

“I think we should be having it now because I did notice, looking at some plans for Peterborough, developers were developing a house and by the side of the garage was room for wheelie bin storage.

“The rest of the country seems to be going in the direction of wheelie bins and we’ll probably have to play catch up at some point.

“Well, until we start introducing wheelie bins, our developers won’t even begin contemplating that. So therefore we’re always going to be years and years behind.”

While fellow South & East Lincolnshire Council Partnership authorities in Boston and East Lindsey use wheelie bins, South Holland continues to collect its waste in refuse sacks.

But now SHDC are planning changes to their refuse collection for the first time in a decade, citing growth in the area as a major factor.

Collections will remain weekly, the authority has confirmed.

Coun Gibson welcomed the plans for change, agreeing that the old system needed to be modernised.

“By the sounds of what’s been going on recently in quite a few different areas, there’s been quite a lot of missed collections or vehicles not managing to get round”, he said.

“It sounds like something needed to happen.

“I’m guessing that re-routing has come about as the best option. Hopefully it will be a good thing and hopefully resolve anybody having any missed collections.

“It’s unfortunate that some people are going to have to change collection dates and that could cause a little bit of upheaval. I’m sure there will be some teething problems at the beginning, which will hopefully be ironed out quickly.

“Hopefully in the long run it’s going to be better for South Holland.

“We’ve had a lot of building and it’s different in different areas. Crowland had a massive increase of housing over the last four years and then other areas have had no increase. It’s the right thing to do.”