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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIB a massive NIMBY?

33 replies

laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 14:44

Everybody on our street got letters today asking us not to leave our wheelie bins on the pavement but to take them round and leave them in our gardens on non-collection days.

I know that this is pretty standard practice places, but traditionally hasn't been the case where I live. Largely because we live in a terrace with tiny gardens, terrible access to them and even plus big wheelie bins there is enough room to get a wheelchair past on the pavements no problems.

I also know that this request has been fuelled by many complaint letters from a particular neighbour who doesn't like the way the bins look but has also blocked the access to the backs of the terraces from her side so that some of her neighbours (including a lovely elderly woman with osteophrosis would have to drag their bins twice a week around twenty houses!

So, AIBU (and a massive NIMBY) to kick up a big fuss? Letters to council, volunteer street cleaning programme so the bins don't need to be moved etc...

OP posts:
iamwhatiamwhatiam · 12/04/2010 14:45

Who sent the letter, the council?

fruitful · 12/04/2010 14:46

The letter - is it a suggestion, or from someone who could enforce it?

If it is a suggestion, just ignore it.

Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 14:47

It's from the council.

OP posts:
ASecretLemonadeDrinker · 12/04/2010 14:47

Is she allowed to block on of the accesses?

Rockbird · 12/04/2010 14:47

I have to agree with your neighbour in that bins on the street look awful, bad enough on bin day but all the time? However, we live in a street full of semis and so all have side access to the garden. What sort of set up do you have?

Rockbird · 12/04/2010 14:48

Sorry, missed the bit about the neighbour blocking access, don't agree with that!

Wonderstuff · 12/04/2010 14:48

I don't think YABU. Your neighbour sounds like a massive pita. Do you have right of access over her land??

SpicedGerkin · 12/04/2010 14:49

'but has also blocked the access to the backs of the terraces from her side'

Is she entitled to do that?

LadyBlaBlah · 12/04/2010 14:50

You don't have to have wheelie bins. Just phone the council to pick them up and go back to bin/recycle as you can.

LadyBiscuit · 12/04/2010 14:50

If she has blocked access then the council probably don't realise that. She must allow access if there is a right of way. Make her unblock it and then drive her potty by bumping your bins past her constantly.

But yes I do think you should get your wheelie bins off the pavement - we have to cut our hedge back when it overhangs, even though there is plenty of room for a wheelchair or buggy to pass

Rockbird · 12/04/2010 14:50

Sorry, just looked at your profile to see if there were any pics of the front of your house (why the hell I thought there might be I don't know! but I love the pic of your dd with her little hat on. So sweet

Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 14:52

I don't know about the access blocking there seems to be a big question over it, in that you can but only if you allow everyone else access but she has put up a gate and locked it. A few other people have done similar things.

OP posts:
Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 14:55

I don't know who is supposed to maintain the back paths either, they are really over grown, you can't get bins past three houses down on my side because of a big pile of wood.

I can't move mine anyway. I have really bad tendonitus and I can't unlock the padlock my back gate atm. I'll have to wait for DP to come back at the weekend.

OP posts:
SpicedGerkin · 12/04/2010 14:55

I'd point out the issue of access blocking to the council and tell them to get that sorted before they start whinging about bins being left out.

saslou · 12/04/2010 14:56

I would contact the council about the access being blocked and say you will happily move your bins when this has been addressed

Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 15:03

LadyBlaBlah - I don't think I will convince my neighbours of that!

Thank you Rockbird! I loved that hat, DD lost it, lol.

Even if we have all the access stuff sorted, it still doesn't seem very fair on the more elederly/frail residents.

As much as I can volunteer to help, they are generally the ones I don't know live here, and were the first I saw struggling with their bins this morning it seems very unfair.
Some of the houses have flights of steps to get into their gardens too (I said it was bad access!)

OP posts:
BramblyHedge · 12/04/2010 15:11

We have a pathway down the back of our terrace (between gardens and houses) and we all have a right of way over the pathway which leads to the alleyway leading to the road. We have no frontage - just a 1m pavement and then road so we have no wheelie bins and no recycling (PITA having to do that ourselves). We have to leave our bin bags out the back of our houses and the binmen have to come down the path and collect them. I think the bins probably look ugly out the front but why don't you write to the council and explain about the access problem, or suggest a different collection method like ours (if it would work).

Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 15:22

The reason all of this has come up is because the environmental health people can't get down the street to clean it. But we have volunteers who are happy to get out with litter pickers and do it themselves.

Does it really matter that much that they look ugly? I assumed it didn't and most people on the street seem to agree. I'm a bit surprised tbh.

OP posts:
AvengingGerbil · 12/04/2010 15:26

I live on a street of terraced houses with no access at the back at all. We all have a black wheelie bin for rubbish and a red one for recycling and some people have a green one as well for garden recycling. These all sit in our 2metre by 3 metre front gardens all the time.

Scenic they are not. We have to live with them. Sounds like OP's neighbours need to get a grip.

Hulababy · 12/04/2010 15:33

I have to admit that I would hate to have a load of bins lining the street. They aren't attractive and would make the road look pretty untidy.

However the issue with your neighbour blocking access is another matter. I would take that up with the council and have the legalities of her doing that checked out.

Original poster
laweaselmys · 12/04/2010 15:36

hmm. I will scale it back and do a restrained letter to the council pointing out the access issues.

OP posts:
WhereYouLeftIt · 12/04/2010 16:46

OP, you might also want to point out that several residents have difficulty moving the bins. I'm sure I read some stuff in my local paper when these bins were first introduced, that elderly/disabled were entitled to some help from the binmen; namely that they did not have to put them out, the binmen would fetch them round and put them back. Made the front page a few times when the binmen didn't do so.

I can't see our council doing this unless they were legally required, so maybe your council needs to provide this service for your elderly neighbours?

Your neighbour sounds adorable [sarcastic emoticon].

sarah293 · 12/04/2010 16:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

BertieBotts · 12/04/2010 16:54

I live in a terrace which has no back access (the path is overgrown and blocked) and we don't have wheeliebins but we do have specific council branded rubbish sacks which we have to use. These are collected every week, recycling every other week.

So I have a normal black plastic bin in my yard (not really a garden!) which I keep the full binbags in, then on the day the bins are collected I can just put the bags out.

BertieBotts · 12/04/2010 16:55

Oh and we don't have front gardens, the houses are just on the street, so no room for wheelie bins.

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