Preston City Council has announced that it will remove bins left permanently on the pavement and charge people for their return. They approach will be to first leave yellow stickers, then a red ones and then confiscate them and charge the owners £11 to get them both. Both the labour and conservative groups support the move; deputy leader, Councillor John Swindells explained: “People have complained bitterly about them being out on the streets all the time.. we have tried with education and neighbourhood management teams. Residents requested further action be taken”.
Needless to say, one does not need to go to Preston to find bins left permanently on the pavement. Notice that these people living in my home town have actually got space on where they could store their bins on their land but choose instead to keep them on the pavement where they get in someone else’s way and create a pretty little garden on their patch. It makes a mockery of the dropped kerb; notice also that the bollards which were put their to keep the pavement clear of parked cars are now making the pavement even less usable. My council have said that it would be too difficult to do anything about it and have not followed up my complaint with any letters or whatever.
Bins on pavement with pretty private garden behind
Pedestrian Liberation 
I do have one problem with this and it’s something that you have brought up before. What action are the council going to take to ensure that THEIR contractors who empty these bins return them to a place off the pavement. It would be unfair after all if a resident were to have their bin confiscated because of the actions of council employees.
I would suggest that they check for bins on the street 48 hours after the collection day. If you are not able to retrieve your bin then you shouldn’t put it out. I do agree that the council contractors should in general return the bins to where they came from, which in most cases in already within the boundary of the property. As you know in Ipswich they are instructed to leave them on the pavement regardless of whether there is a sensible off-road location.
There are times when I don’t put my bin out (for various reasons), sometimes the bin men come in and empty it anyway and sometimes they don’t. If I’m away on holiday and don’t put it out, is it therefore my fault if the bin man comes in, empties it and leaves it on the street where it may stay for a couple of weeks?
So, while I’m in favour (in general) about a council taking this action, I just want to be sure that they enforce the rules properly regarding their staff (which they quite obviously don’t do in Ipswich).
I’m just astonished at the size of the bins. Who on earth generates that much landfill in a week or even a fortnight? Seems the Council are causing the problem by providing such massive receptacles.
The yellow / red sticker is going to be their records I assume… some how I doubt they will have a list back at HQ of which ones have what stickers so owners could probably just remove the sticker, or possibly get a sticker on your “legally parked” bin from someone else etc!