It was announced by the council last week, 6th September 2013 that wheelie bins are to be introduced across the rest of Birmingham by the end of 2015.
The plans will go before Birmingham City Councils cabinet for approval on 16th September 2013. The council has said they will use a grant of almost £30 million from the government to fund the introduction of the wheelie bins. Councillor James McKay has said he believes the proposal with help close a “funding gap” in the waste management budget. He has also stated that he believes by the end of the decade, we would have an £8 million gap between the budget available to deliver the wheelie bin service and what the service is actually costing.
We previously discussed the trial in Brandwood and Harborne, which a spokesman has now announced were perceived well by the public, with public satisfaction of the bins “very high”.
The proposed timetable for the wheelie bins rollout
- July 2014 – Ladywood
- August – December 2014 – Hodge Hill, Hall Green, Yardley
- February – June 2015 – Erdington, Perry Barr, Sutton Coldfield
- August – December 2015 – Edgbaston, Selly Oak, Northfield
The council has said that if the rollout goes ahead, it would require investment over the next five years of £65.6m, including the £39.6m on the purchase of new bins and 148 new vehicles used for refuse collection. If the plan is approved, the number of refuse rounds would be increased from 40 to 53, as “it takes more time to collect wheelie bins than sacks”. Staff need to each vehicle would also be cut from on average 4.5 to 3, as the wheelie bins will “require smaller crews”.
McKay has also claimed that the introduction of the wheelie bins scheme would lead to a massive gain in terms of litter and street cleanliness across the city. “What we’ve seen in the pilot where we’ve actually delivered, is that the satisfaction levels are very high, people are very happy with it and don’t want to go back to black bags”.
Here at Wheelie Bins Direct2U we are interested to hear what your opinions on the proposal are. Are you in one of the areas where the rollout is planned, are you a resident in one of the trial areas or have you been using wheelie bins for years, and what effect do you think the wheelie bins will have?