Bins replaced with rubbish sacks on Luton roads in controversial council trial

People living along four streets in Luton will have to use sacks for their rubbish instead of wheelie bins, as part of a new council trial.

A letter was sent to those on May Street, Baker Street, Cambridge Street and Strathmore Avenue explaining Luton Borough Council’s plans to trial a new way of collecting waste for the next three months.

The letter read: “We will no longer empty domestic (black bins) and dry recycling (green bins), instead we will collect up to six sacks of each waste type on each collection day.”

The collection days and weeks are unchanged, but sacks should not put out any earlier than 6am on the day of collection. Residents can keep their bins for storage during the trial, but they should be kept within the property boundary.

Putting waste on the streets outside of the agreed times will be considered an offence under Section 46 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the council letter stated, and people may be liable for a £100 fine.

On Facebook, unhappy people shared their thoughts about the scheme, which will start on Tuesday, April 9. From now on, any bins left on the roads will be removed by the council.

One resident said: “You have every right to be concerned. This is not thought out at all. It’s not practical. Does not make sense. Why are we paying them to make our lives more difficult?”

While Mark Tattingham said: “They do this in some areas of London the bags split and leave rubbish and people tend to put out the night before and get ripped open by foxes and rats I guess. If people had put the bins away the council would not have had an excuse to do this.”

The council explained: “Vermin was a factor that was carefully considered, so it was decided to allow residents to have the option to keep the bin within their boundary as a sack storage bin(s). This storage method will prevent attracting vermin who may rip the bags open.

“Sacks should only be put out for collection at the designated collection time. We will be monitoring the location to ensure that sacks are not left out at other points in time and we will monitor reports of rodent activity.”

The council says it has introduced the trial after getting complaints and rubbish being kept along the streets. A spokesperson for Luton Borough Council said: “Some residents store their waste bin(s) on the public highway because they have limited or no external space on their property to store a wheeled bin, or because it is too difficult to move the bin from their property to a point on the highway where it can be collected.

“We receive a number of complaints about wheelie bins and rubbish being stored on the highway, creating obstructions for wheelchair users, people with prams and others with access needs. This trial will help us to assess whether this approach will help us in dealing with these kinds of issues.”

Feedback will be collected on how the trial works and if it has positively impacted the area and residents. The council continued: “All feedback will be evaluated to help us in considering effective waste collection operations going forward.”

All residents will be informed at the end of the trial about whether the scheme will be made permanent.

Black boxes for glass and subscribed brown bins for garden waste will not be affected, but “need to be removed from the public footpath or highway within 12 hours of collection or risk being removed” by the council, and “any subscribed garden waste bins that are removed for this reason will incur a replacement bin charge”.