Can I use the playground of a council estate if we don't live there?

[Mummy1608]

Quick question...

I live right outside a really big council estate. (Eg I walk through it everyday as a shortcut to my local train station, that's how close I am and how big it is.) It's got a lovely playground in it with lots of cool climbing bits etc. Can I go there with my DD or do you think it's frowned on if I don't live there, because it's meant to be for residents? I can't find anywhere whether this isn't allowed, but it might be technically allowed but still frowned on? My next nearest playground is much smaller (although always empty) and a 15 min walk away.

Tldr can I take my dd to the council estate playground?

[quote limitedperiodonly]@thewhatsit why would I want to keep rubbish in my house?[/quote]
Don’t you have your own dustbin? Most people keep rubbish in an indoor kitchen bin, then move it out to their own dustbin (or if they are in a flat, communal bins).

The majority of households don’t use a street rubbish bin for their normal household waste. In fact you can be fined for doing so:

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/waste-collectors-snoop-through-public-3000364.amp

It's actually becoming a problem

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/west-london-borough-set-to-axe-street-bins-because-they-attract-rubbish-8474450.html

why would I want to keep rubbish in my house?

So you don’t have any bins in your house? You bag everything and take it to a public street bin?

That’s weird. Normal practice is to have small bins in the house which you empty regularly into you wheelie bin which is specifically for your household waste.

Oddly enough not everyone is the same. Which is nice because it would be boring if we were.

We don't have dustbins round here because we don't have front gardens to put them in. Most people don't have back gardens either though I do. But my garden is not accessible from the street so if I wanted to store rubbish in it I'd have to carry it through the house and leave it on the pavement in bags on Mondays and Thursdays when the bin men come round.

I find it more convenient to throw small amounts of rubbish every day in the street bins provided by the council. I guess many of my neighbours do too but I've never done a survey. I always choose the one at the end of my street outside the cafe because it is on the way I walk nine times out of 10. Happily for us, this is allowed and householders are in no danger of being fined.

The council bin men will take any bags or boxes containing general household rubbish but we are issued with special biodegradable bags for mixed recycling that can be left on the pavement for collection on the same days as general rubbish but by different dustcarts. But I generally take that to the nearest recycling dumpster which is about 500 yards away every few days because I don't want old newspapers, tin cans and wine bottles cluttering up my house. There are no facilities for compostable waste though there are specialised bins for unwanted textiles and small electrical items.

This is a bit like being quizzed on my rubbish disposal habits by that cafe owner that day. By the way, as a business owner he cannot put commercial waste in the street bins but must pay to have it collected by yet another of the council's dustcarts. The council are sticklers for that and will hunt down and fine miscreants. Perhaps he was feeling bitter about my use of the bin that is off limits to him. Perhaps when he goes home he is filled with impotent rage about strange children playing on the swings in "his" park.

I swear this thread gets more and more batshit

We've had play parks are not parks, can't walk on public roads, now we have no bins in the house?

When I had no street bins I just bought a cheap black bin to store my bags in until bin day, you can't use public bins for household waste they are for like your lunch packet or dog poo. Waste generated while out, no wonder the cafe owner gets pissed if its being used for an entire household of waste

@OrangeShark27 outlandish as it may sound to you, householders round here really do not have wheely bins and can use the street bins if they do not want to use the twice-weekly doorstep pick ups. Their progressive approach to waste management is one of the reasons I am thrilled by my local council. If you don't like yours perhaps you should write them a letter.

[quote limitedperiodonly]@thewhatsit why would I want to keep rubbish in my house?[/quote]
I'm sorry... What?! @limitedperiodonly.... Do you not have a bin?!

Would people living close to a council estate not use other public funded facilities on the estate? What if, for example, (depending on the size of estate it is of course) there was a school, library, community centre with WW meeting/exercise classes/ Brownies meetings etc there? Of course you'd use it! A playground is the same? OK they're probably there because many of the kids on the estate are in flats so don't have gardens, but there are people in privately rented/owned properties with no gardens.

@AllThingsServeTheBeam obviously I have a bin in my bathroom. I'm not uncivilised but I would prefer guests did not put used tampons in it.

For the kitchen I save small plastic food bags that I've used for sandwiches or storing stuff in the freezer in a large hessian bag I was given free with some vitamins. That's in the large kitchen cupboard which also contains the ironing board, mop, bucket, broom etc.

Each day I get a new (used) bag out and hang on a hook on the back of the cupboard door. During the day I dispense small non-recyclable waste items in it - peelings, eggshells (crushed to save space), tea bags, the film lids from yogurt pots etc - and then tie it up and take it to one of the street bins. I could save the rubbish up for the twice-weekly doorstep collection of household waste but I prefer not to do that. I also usually take my recycling to the recycling dumpsters nearby rather than storing it for collection too. The council does not issue us with wheely bins and kitchen caddies for compostable waste but I do not feel deprived.

I think @HadaVerde has a valid point about the bins, the ones I think they are referring to are the big communal bins for household waste in flats that don’t have room for a wheelie bin each. I don’t know if some people don’t get this and think we are talking about public waste bins. Unless I am the one who has it wrong.

obviously I have a bin in my bathroom. I'm not uncivilised but I would prefer guests did not put used tampons in it

Where do you suggest guests put used sanitary products then? Carry them straight to a street bin?

Are you allowed to put your sanitary products in the bathroom bin?

I have lived in an area with bag pick up. Still have household bins, just put the bag out on bin day.

[quote limitedperiodonly]@AllThingsServeTheBeam obviously I have a bin in my bathroom. I'm not uncivilised but I would prefer guests did not put used tampons in it.

For the kitchen I save small plastic food bags that I've used for sandwiches or storing stuff in the freezer in a large hessian bag I was given free with some vitamins. That's in the large kitchen cupboard which also contains the ironing board, mop, bucket, broom etc.

Each day I get a new (used) bag out and hang on a hook on the back of the cupboard door. During the day I dispense small non-recyclable waste items in it - peelings, eggshells (crushed to save space), tea bags, the film lids from yogurt pots etc - and then tie it up and take it to one of the street bins. I could save the rubbish up for the twice-weekly doorstep collection of household waste but I prefer not to do that. I also usually take my recycling to the recycling dumpsters nearby rather than storing it for collection too. The council does not issue us with wheely bins and kitchen caddies for compostable waste but I do not feel deprived.[/quote]
What would you like people to do with tampons? Carry them around with them because you don't have an outside bin?

I wonder if this is why bins in public parks are always overflowing now where I am, people using them in lieu of a wheelie bin

@Nomoreusernames1244. Luckily it's one problem I don't have to deal with in my busy life. I don't have periods, some of us don't you know. The last woman of menstruating age in my house was an insurance assessor after a flood - water not a heavy period - in 2014. Fingers crossed I'm not expecting her back - not that she wasn't a very nice person but the place was a mess and it took ages to sort out.

I didn't think it was appropriate for me to ask her about her cycle or instruct her on the disposal of sanpro but when I emptied my bin I don't think there was a tampon in it. There might have been but I didn't investigate. I just tied a knot in the bin liner and threw it in the bin at the end of the street the next time I went by. That would have been the following morning but the reason I'd prefer women not to do that is because I don't need to empty the bathroom bin very often and would probably only be alerted to the presence of bloody sanpro (or a used condom discarded by a male visitor) when it started to smell. If it's okay by you I will continue to express a preference for waste disposal in my own house on threads like this. However, I would never impose my tyranny on guests - or people who come round my house which is what those of us not in the hotel trade call them. I promise you that I will pass no comment on your arrangements for disposal of sanitary or other waste.

I do not think it is particularly eccentric that I don't have kitchen or outside bins. I have reused plastic or sometimes paper bags and throw everything in a street bin daily or every other day. It may seem crazy to you but it's a system that works for me and I will stick with it. You can stick your system too.

@HadaVerde

Visiting friends who live there? Yes fine.

Using it cos it’s closer than another for public use playground? No of course it’s not ok.

I’m amazed people think this is ok.

Of course it's ok - it's taxpayer-owned, like libraries are.

It's not military land with barbed wire all around it.

Well after a boring day this thread has really made me lol.

I grew up in a block of flats 12 storeys high there were 3 of them. We had a play ground/park whatever you want to call it.
My friends came from different areas of the town to play. No signs were up saying residents only as not only is that unworkable it's divisive and illegal as we ALL pay for these facilities in our taxes.

As for not walking through estates unless we have business there well this is either a wind up or you are not capable of rational thought.

@Iwannabewherethepeopleare have you ever thought the bins in your public parks might be overflowing because the council do not empty them frequently enough? That's the fault of the council not the people throwing their rubbish in bins.

We don't have wheely bins because there is no outside space for them. If I bought my own and put it on the pavement in front of my house the council would remove it and fine me for littering. Other councils might allow it but that's the system here. I like it because who wants to have bins outside their house all the time?

Instead of a bin I can use the twice-weekly rubbish pick ups of bags from outside my house but I prefer every day or so to throw my small amount of rubbish in the many street bins round here which are emptied at least once a day.

I know it must seem like I live in some kind of waste disposal paradise but that's really what happens. A couple of years ago I did a load of shredding of old documents and filled five recycling bags. I wondered if the bin men would take them and was ready for them to say it was too much. But they took them. That might have been because I am careful not to abuse the doorstep collection privilege and dispose of my rubbish as and when and always responsibly.

But maybe they didn't give a shit and took it away because it was there on the correct day and that's what I pay my council tax for.

I've just heard another dustcart go by. The waste management system here is world-beating.

@limitedperiodonly I understand you don't have a wheelie bin, I've had many properties without a wheelie bin but I've always just put my bags in an outside bin you can buy for like 15 from b&q.

What are guests supposed to do with their used tampons? Put them in their pocket? Walk down the street? Its clearly caused you some thought in your life for you to have a rule about jt! They can't even the kitchen bin or the outside bin, there's literally no bins.

Honestly it's very eccentric, I've never met anyone without a bin

Twice weekly collections as well, you'd only need the bag sitting outside for like a day!

The binmen took your 5 bags of recycling because that's their job and the council pays them to collect recycling. Nothing to do with you not using the normal rubbish collection system that everyone else is using. I don't think the bin men though "I'll take these 5 bags because this house always walks their rubbish down the road".

@Limitedperiodonly Everywhere I have ever come across with no space for wheelie bins has had communal dumpsters for the rubbish - these might be a short walk away but so are the public litter bins. As you have mentioned there are recycling dumpsters are there not also waste dumpsters?

I thought it was illegal to use public bins for household waste. That’s why we have refuse collections, be it wheelie or bin bag.

Yes @limitedperiodonly I complain frequently about public waste bins and am envious of where you live that it’s all dealt with so swiftly. But you must get that you’re lucky and the opposition to the rule? If all your neighbours took their rubbish to the public bin at the end of the street then it would be overflowing every day in life? I’m not actually saying you’re doing anything wrong if it’s just a handful of rubbish, but you’re also not really in the right either

@Thedogscollar when I was growing up everyone wanted to come round because we lived directly opposite a municipal playground with swings, roundabout, slide, climbing frame and hopscotch grid. My mum liked it because she could keep an eye on me from the window from time to time and the other mums did her favours to thank her for watching out for their children. It's still there and I hope there is still no catchment area on it.
.
It's weird that people think you can't walk down public streets and use public facilities unless you live there. Or sometimes even if you do but not close enough.

Do none of these people drive to another town on roads maintained out of local taxation and want to park in municipal car parks and go swimming in the local authority pool? Or even to the privately-owned shopping centre - shouldn't locals get priority?

I live in an area that attracts a lot of tourists. I wouldn't dream of telling them not to use the bins because they haven't paid for them. That would make me look a bit mad.

MN today is giving me an idea for some household decor tat:

"In this house we do not:
Menstruate unless we live here
Have sex in other people's loos necessitating the disposal of a used condom(?!)
Wear our shoes indoors
Remove our shoes
Use any public facilities outside of our postcode"

@limitedperiodonly has made me think.

I always used to flush tampons - I know, I know, but it’s what I was told to do. Now I’m post menopausal it’s not something I need to think about, but we are having family visit next month including a woman of menstruating age. Perhaps I should get a second bathroom bin (we have an en-suite) and some liners and put it in the family bathroom before their visit. Just in case.

On a similar line - was invited round for a cuppa by someone we met at church - older couple, so definitely no sanpro required there. Went to the loo. There was a little stand in there with a range of sanpro and those disposal bags you get in hotels - in a holder. Presumably for use by visitors.