Fly Tipping and Council Rants...

Hey

So today I'm on a bit of a rant. It's been in the local papers over the last couple of weeks about fly tipping around the area. We had alley gates fitted to our back alleys a couple of years ago as the council decided this would help reduce fly tipping and people hanging about. We were then informed that if we wanted a key to have access to our own back alley then we would have the privilage of paying £8 for one.

At the time we had a moped and this was stored in our back yard, so it meant that we had to purchase a key otherwise we couldn't get in and out with the moped. At the time we were very annoyed at having to this as fair enough it's £8, but why should we have to pay to have access to our own property. This is our house, we bought it and we oay our council tax, surely each house should have been given one key? But no this isn't the case, many people on the street didn't bother to buy a key and we've been asked numerous times by neighbours if they could borrow our key to let people round the back to load/unload deliveries or do work etc. We've actually stopped lending out our key now as I don't see why we should pay for a key and then hand it out for everybody else to get the benefits and not have to pay. Also as we live in terrace houses, our rubbish bins can't be stored on the path and have to be kept in our back yards, which means if you don't buy a key and the gates are shut you have to pull the bins through your house. Not a good plan.

Anyway, fast forward a couple of years and the alley gates clearly haven't worked as there is always bags of rubbish and dumped items in the alleys. This was even mentioned by  one of the councillors in the paper, but they are proposing more gates be put up. Go figure.

I had to ring the council just after Christmas as the alley gate lock was broken and would only unlock from the inside, so if your on the outside you had to put your hand through and unlock with the key from the inside. While I was reporting this I also reported the 30/40 black bags of rubbish that had been dumped at each end of the alley and also the array of items thrown in the back alley. They said they would fix the lock and get the rubbish removed, to be fair they did, but  it's filling up again.

My other rant is about the actual bins. The council decided to give us all bins a few years ago, grey for general waste, blue lid for recycling and a bag for cardboard. The bag blew away long ago and after reporting 2/3 missing and getting replacements I gave in. Our grey bin has been stolen once, which was replaced. Over Christmas before I started using cloth nappies pretty much full time I realised that my grey bin was full after a week (collection is every fornight) mainly with nappies, so I thought I'd contact the council to get an additional bin.

When looking into this I found that having a newborn in nappies I might be entitled to an additional grey bin, however I would have to fill in an application form first. If my apllication was approved I'd then need to be assessed by a person who comes round. Then if they approved it I could have an additional bin, after I paid a £30 fee!! I also found that now if our bin is lost or stolen I would have to pay a £15 admin charge for a new one. So somebody steals my bin and I am expceted to pay? No wonder people fly tip. Isn't this why I pay my council tax? To have a bin collection and waste disposed of. Surely bins are being stolen left right and centre by other people who have had there bin lost or stolen because they can't/don'at want to pay the fee for a new one.

A friend of mine recently bought a brand new house, only just built therefore had no bins. They also had to pay £30 to get a bin, they hadn't even ever had a bloody bin. Surely if everybody was issued with a bin when the whole scheme was introduced for free, then new builds should be issued with a free bin when they are built!!!

Rant over... for now

Donna
x x