Rubbish collection AIBU

[Racecardriver]

I am really not sure whether IABU here. I live on a street with shops with flats above (about a dozen of each). The flats are old and don't have anywhere to store rubbish. Instead if bins we have some special bags for rubbish and recycling.

Here's my AIBU. The council only collects rubbish fortnightly (one week rubbish, one week recycling). AIBU in thinking this is kind if gross and not really OK? The council has binmen down the street taking rubbish for public bins and business rubbish every day (although someone eft a bag by a bin three weeks ago that the council workers have just moved around the bin for some reason) if that makes difference. Council is doing well finacially, affluent area, no cuts to services and plenty that could be cut so its not a funding issue.

I'm not going to complain, I knew this was the situation when I moved here and I'm fine with it but I just find it a bit

You have had cuts in service; I’m guessing that rubbish was collected every week.

@knittedfaires no idea, good chance it was collected daily at some point. Ibdid assume they used the EU regulation to cut service thought but I just seems like an odd thing to do when they don't need to make cuts/they could have cut other things instead. Generally the town is really clean (although most people are careful not to litter etc anyway) so it seems odd that they think this is reasonable. We manage just fine with our kitchen bin but some of our neighbours keep putting out bags on the wrong day hoping they get collected/have like six bags of waste.

My council is one week recycling and one week normal rubbish too, most people i know across the UK have a similar set up. I think weekly collections for residential rubbish are now rarer than fortnightly

The businesses will be paying for those collections though, so they get theirs collected however many days they pay for it to be done.

Our general waste is 3 weekly and recycling 2 weekly. We have weekly food caddies also. Our general waste and recycling are wheely bins though which helps. We also have to pay an annual fee to opt into the 2 weekly gardening bin. I don't think I'd be too happy with 2 weekly general waste if we only had bags

Is there really a council which is doing well financially and has not cut services?

no cuts to services

I really, really doubt that.

Meantime, you can ask the Council to clarify waste collection rules. Ours for example say you can only put rubbish out after 7pm the night before collection day.

@idahojones it's a small town so there were never that many services to begin with but the arts centres, the library, children's centre etc are all up and running. They spend a lot of money on making 'musems' and having various festivals and things. Generally services are really good here. It's all managed quite well and they make up for shortfalls by finding things to charge for like creating a residents parking permit scheme and encouraging people to use the market so they get more from that. Although business rates are extremely high by the looks of it (loads of charity shops and even fairly popular businesses close down regularly). It's just seemed like an odd choice to reduce waste collections when they are funding all these little projects that few people care about. But maybe it wS just a council wide policy that was imlpkemented and no one has bothered to complain because most of us manage. Not sure why one neighbour keeps optimistically putting our rubbish bags on recycling week though.

@lavalamped thankfully no garden waste to worry about here but 3 weekly rubbish is a bit grim even with wheelie bins.

love to know which council has had no cuts I'd be off there like a shot

Sounds even worse over a hot summer Shame the council tax keeps increasing too Although our council is on the verge a bankruptcy

Doesn't sound very reasonable of the council, given the properties in question. Fortnightly is okay when you are a house with a garden, but for other people it does cause problems. We're in a flat and share bins and it's not good. It also makes it so hard to remember which week it is. I'm forever looking it up.

Less regular collections are getting more and more common now, but that's normally with wheelie bins. I think your council is being shit expecting residents of small flats to keep waste indoors for two weeks, and to do that on a street that gets daily commercial collections is really rubbing it in.

With it being a dozen properties the council probably doesn't give a shit though, they're enforcing a one size fits all policy.

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/sep/26/parents-in-england-seek-legal-action-over-special-needs-funding-cuts

These kinds of cuts into statutory services are everywhere, affecting everyone. You may be in a borough or district council area; but will ultimately be under a larger unitary or county council which has statutory duties in regards to social services and educational welfare, special needs, and safeguarding.

Sorting your bins out and recycling are good for the environment. Saves money for the Council too - and thus gives more towards saving some slivers of statutory services.

If other people are taking the piss about bins and recycling, report them. They're the ones in the wrong. Report the people putting rubbish out on the wrong day. Or the wrong rubbish. There will still be a small team on the Council dedicated to this.

And tell your MP. These cuts come from government, to be passed on by councils. For every 100,000 people, a typical city council can be nearly £2 million in the red just for children's services.

But people can't put their rubbish out properly.