Preston pilots bin confiscation scheme

Preston city Council is today (June 9) introducing a scheme to confiscate bins that are left out on the street after feedback from a public consultation showed support from local residents.

The scheme is to be piloted in the Wellington Street and St. Marks Road areas of Preston, and, if successful, consideration will be given to rolling out the scheme throughout the city.

Following complaints from residents, the council consulted on introducing a three strikes and youre out policy where after three warnings bins left out will be confiscated by the council with people having to order a new bin and charged accordingly.

The council will adopt an approach whereby after three warnings bins left out will be confiscated and residents must pay 11 to get their bin back.

The council can and has in the past used legal enforcement notices to try and tackle this problem, but claims that this process is time consuming and costly.

Councillor Robert Boswell, cabinet member for community and environment in Preston, said: We receive a lot of complaints about bins being left on the streets as they look unsightly and attract vandalism and fly tipping. Anyone who represents a ward with a lot of terraced streets are aware of what a problem this can be.

It is an issue we are keen to tackle and we believe this approach will help improve the situation in the area it is being implemented.

Complaints

Every year, Preston council receives 300 complaints about bins being left on the street – 264 about bins out and 36 about arson after bin being left out.

In the consultation, which was carried out in May 2011, 71% of respondents said that they came across bins outside collection times on a daily basis, while 90% said that the bins made the area look untidy or uncared for.

Almost a third (28%) of respondents said they had reported problems with bins on streets and 64% said they would support or strongly support moves by the council to confiscate offending bins, provided owners are given sufficient warning.

Preston currently provides four bins to residents. This includes a black wheeled bin for residual waste, a brown bin for garden waste, a blue box with a red lid for paper and card and a blue box with a yellow lid for plastic bottles, cans, aerosols, foil and glass. The coucils waste collection service is operated in-house.