By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
People who leave their bins out after collection in Tewkesbury will only be fined as a last resort, council chiefs say as plans to rid the medieval town of “bin blight” move forward.
A pilot scheme is being considered which would make it a requirement that residents in Tewkesbury’s conservation area must remove bins from streets once collected.
Tewkesbury Borough Councillors agreed to look into the issue last year after hundreds of residents signed a petition over the issue.
A working group has considered the problem and their recommendations have been endorsed by full council last night (February 24)
Officers will now work on costing the scheme before it is presented to leaders later this year for consideration.
Councillor Murray Stewart (LD, Cleeve West), who is the lead member for environmental services, presented the report at the meeting.
“It is clear the question whether to enforce or not to enforce is divisive,” he said.
“I would like to emphasise that if the recommendations are agreed, householders would be supported and encouraged wherever possible to store bins away from the street.
“Enforcement would only be used as a last resort where all other options have failed.
“Officers have advised that for this work to be successful they will need to have the ability to enforce in those rare cases where residents refuse to comply.”
The fully costed pilot project will be presented to leaders by June this year and it will be up to them to agree whether they should proceed and allocate the necessary funding.
Deputy leader Sarah Hands (LD, Innsworth) said the council faced a reputational risk over the proposals.
She said there social media comments suggesting the council was only doing it to make money.
“We’ve done this because residents have come to us and asked for us to look into it,” she said.
“There has been a hell of a lot of work gone into it through the overview and scrutiny committee. We owe it then as a council to actually take on these recommendations.”
She explained the executive will have to look at the cost implications of the proposal.
“When it comes to the executive committee, I really want to see those figures because it is a balance,” she said.
“We have to be really sensible with how we go ahead with this.”
Councillor Paul McLain (C, Highnam with Haw Bridge) said he would not be supporting the proposals.
“We do not have the financial resources,” he said.
He also said in a year or two years’ time the council may have a completely different refuse collection system due to local government reorganisation.
“It seems premature and costly to go down that route now,” he said.
He also questioned why only one conservation was being considered.
Councillor Craig Carter (I, Brockworth West) said he liked the proposal and said it might be good to roll out the policy across the borough.
“Around the whole of our district there are many bins, people don’t care about leaving it out as an obstruction on pavements,” he said.
“Maybe this is a good policy to go around the whole borough rather than just in a conservation area.”
The council voted in favour of the recommendations.