As of today, the Labour-run Leeds city council will be charging residents for new or replacement black and brown bins. Anyone whose bin is stolen or damaged will need to pay the council £15.40 to secure a replacement. The new fees are listed on the council website, and the council’s briefing notice on the policy is shown below:

We can’t see how this policy will be anything other than a disaster in Headingley and Hyde Park. Here, many people live in terraced houses with no private space to keep their own bins. Instead, bins sit in bin-yards, or – more often – out on the pavement, so that it is often unclear which bin belongs to which property. Many local households also don’t have much disposable income, and would struggle to pay for a new bin. The result is bound to be that broken or stolen bins are not replaced, leading to a gradual fall in the number of usable bins available, disputes over who owns the remaining ones and rubbish all over the streets.

Once again, the Labour council has shown a total failure to understand the issues affecting rubbish collections in Headingley and Hyde Park, and our Labour councillors clearly haven’t done enough to speak up for the area and secure a system which will work for local people.