It seems that the Council will go ahead with its threat to reduce the number of litter bins in the City Centre. The are over 100 litter bins in use at present, each costing about £80. They are to be replaced with a small number of “big belly” bins costing around £3000 each.

53 convention bins will be replaced by just 13 of the green monsters.

A recent trial of one of the bins in Acomb proved disastrous with litter levels increasing everywhere.

One advantage of the big bins is that they can automatically report that they are full. However – as we have seen with the flawed roll out of the Iphone “app” for reporting fly tipping & graffiti – unless resources are available to deal promptly with reports then a problem can actually be made worse by change.

The huge “big belly” bins are visually intrusive and their roll out would conflict with the Councils stated aim of reducing street clutter. More seriously though, high levels of litter could damage the City’s image and deter tourists.

There is a place for the use of large bins. The supplying company offers models which allow for recyclable materials to be segregated. We can see that the careful distribution of this type of bin could be helpful in a busy City Centre.
……. but the widespread deployment of appropriately sized, conveniently located, litter bins should remain a high priority for a City which is so dependant on income from tourism.

The Council has recently acquired a poor reputation for taking impulsive decisions without thinking through the costs or long terms consequences of their actions.

We’ll be watching the decision meeting which is taking place on 15th May to see whether the “whole life” costs of the change are revealed