Yesterday evening, my indefatigable constituent Graham Bennett plucked up the courage to ask a few questions to Council on the thorny issue of bins blocking pavements in and around Addington Road, as well as the ongoing problem parked cars preventing bin lorries getting through.
Graham asked a question on the same subject at the December meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Panel, but was understandably dissatisfied with the response he received.
I would emphasise here that Mr Bennett is not an activist, just a concerned citizen. He has been emailing me on and off about these concerns for over a year. I am keen to encourage more local participation in politics, so I have encouraged him to put his questions directly to council officers and councillors in charge.
Regular readers of this blog will be aware of the saga of the one way system approved by Labour councillors, the introduction of double yellow lines to improve access and missed bin collections on Foxhill Road and Cardigan Gardens.
Anyway, he asked Cllr Paul Gittings, Labour's Lead Member for Environment several questions about bins in the Foxhill Road area and, according to Cllr Gittings:
"The access problems in this area have eased considerably in recent months probably due to the enforcement of the recently laid double yellow lines and the procurement of a small vehicle that is able to respond to such problems at short notice."
If only this were true. To the best of my knowledge, the problem of missed bins continues in this area partly due to the lack of available parking for residents living around the University campus. Parking enforcment in the area continues to be patchy
The crux of Graham's question was a request to know when exactly the Council plans to start proactively using it's enforcement powers against those residents who ignore advice not to leave their bins on the pavement.
The Lib Dems in Reading have led the way in calling for RBC to use its environmental enforcement powers against individuals and landlords who fail to heed council advice on waste management over long periods.
I would like to stress that we think this should only happen as a last resort and when it is clear that this behaviour is causing a nuisance to other residents. This relates back to the age-old harm principle put forward by Liberal theorist JS Mill (one of the few things I remember from my Politics degree!)
Cllr Gittings revealed last night in response to Graham's question that a total of 570 'warning' letters had been sent to people across Reading asking them not to leave their bins on the pavement. We are told that 'notices are only used when warnings are ignored'. To date 6 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued: none in Redlands.
I'll consult Graham on this to get his thoughts, but as far as I'm aware people who have been 'warned' by the Council in this part of Redlands are continuing to leave bins on the pavement. This is causing a real problem for pedestrians, buggies and particularly partially sighted and elderly people.
I have some sympathy for Council officers on this issue after some councils have faced criticism in the national press for fining people for leaving bins out. But what's the answer? Pavements after all are for people, not bins.
It is true to say that in some parts of central Reading, residents have nowhere suitable to store bins. When the Council's fortnightly bin collections were introduced (in October 2006) I expressed concerns about how some residents would fit two wheelie bins into the small front gardens belonging to most terraced houses. I recall that the then Labour lead member attacked me for raising this concerns claiming that 'this was not a problem where he lived in Caversham'. Lucky him!
I also raised problems with bins via the Environment Scrutiny Panel - however at that time the Panel was chaired by a Labour member so the way the Council's waste collection service was operating at that time was no challenged, more's the pity.
Equally, I am ready to admit that there is no doubt a hardcore of residents in all parts of Reading who prefer to leave their bins on pavements for no good reason whatsoever, causing a real nuisance for pedestrians. What do you do about those people? Changing people's attitude to waste is very difficult.
On a positive note, Cllr Gittings told us last night that following discussions with the Operational Teams managers:
'it has been agreed that Cardigan Gardens will be added to the exception list and bins in this street will be collected and returned to the property.
A small victory, hopefully.
The debate on bins on pavements and missed collections will no doubt rumble on, but I for one am very grateful to my constituent Graham Bennett for getting bread and butter issues like this on the Council's agenda and holding the Council's Labour Executive to account in this way.
I would encourage any other constituents with a bee in their bonnet about Council policy to do the same.
Comments