Statement on Bin Collection and Placement

A PDF version of this statement is available here.

This statement is a response from Dennistoun Community Council (DCC) to the Glasgow City Council letter (see here) received by some residents within our boundary area, notifying them of the proposed large on-street domestic bins to be placed imminently.

DCC believes that diminishing footway space in the way that’s apparently being proposed would be wholly unacceptable.

There appear to be three key questions, which are essentially those put by DCC to all local Councillors covering our area (as well as the City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction) back in May (see here). And, despite DCC having repeatedly followed up on the matter since then, through speaking to councillors in meetings and via written correspondence (see minutes here), these questions remain unanswered. They are:

• It’s understood to be the case that where new wheelie bins have not yet been introduced red wheelie bins are/were used to transport refuse decanted from the old metal dustbins – how would newly unacceptable risks arise by transporting the (apparently identical in all but colour) new wheelie bins through closes?

• Where, after the required re-assessment of access risk in a close has been carried out, and all mitigating efforts have been taken, large collective domestic bins are found to be absolutely necessary as an alternative to back court wheelie bins, must those bins be placed on the footway? (Cllrs Casey and Long are on record as agreeing that, if shared private residential bins absolutely must be positioned on-street, rather than in back courts, then they ought to be placed on the carriageway rather than on the footway).

• Bearing in mind the numerous policies and strategies published by Glasgow City Council supporting active travel, and the recent removal of identical commercial bins from footways due to all the problems associated with them, if the proposal is to place these collective domestic bins on the footway because residents won’t/can’t make amendments to their close/back court, on what basis are public footway users deemed to be those who are to be inconvenienced, rather than those who wish to store their private vehicles on the public carriageway?

Further to the above, DCC is concerned that an email address is the only means of contact provided (no phone number or postal address given), raising serious questions about accessibility for the not insignificant number of people in the area without access to a computer (particularly while the library is closed) or those for whom English is not a first language.

There is also the question of consultation: Councillor information in DCC meetings indicated that there would be a consultation with the local population, which would seem to be an entirely reasonable expectation, bearing in mind the impact these proposals would have in relocating an element of the refuse collection process from private spaces into public spaces.

It’s not entirely clear what correspondence, if any, has preceded this, but it feels like the “unavoidably tight turnaround for this project” is somewhat unreasonable, too, with pressure being placed on residents to come up with solutions in an unrealistic time frame, bearing in mind the Covid restrictions in place. The issue of access hasn’t cropped up out of nowhere, the Bin Replacement Programme started years ago, and access issues in Dennistoun were well understood months ago.

We would appreciate a response from Glasgow City Council to our concerns noted above.

This statement was sent to Steven McGeady (GCC Communications Officer), and copied to all Dennistoun Ward Councillors on Monday 7th December 2020.

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