Residents have been first mystified and then angry about the way in which the Council has used the excitement surrounding the arrival of the Olympic torch as a smokescreen to spirit away over 33% of the City’s litter and poop scoop bins.

You’d have to be a pretty enthusiastic reader of this web site to have had any advanced notice of their removal.

Across the City 349 bins are being removed from residential areas. In addition, others have been removed from the City centre, although there 1 in 10 are being replaced by larger “big belly” models.

A total of 1024 litter and “poop scoop” bins currently remain on our streets. In the Dringhouses Ward their locations can be found in the list on the right.

We believe that the Council should provide a comprehensive list of retentions and removals on their web site.

The bins have been removed just before the Olympic torch enters the City. The intense on the street activity associated with this event could, of course, mean much more litter generation.

No doubt some Labour Councillors thought that now was a great time to take their controvertial action, believing that the Torch publicity would leave little space for protests about yet another assault on street level public service standards.