A pilot scheme to introduce wheelie bins to five areas of Hounslow will be delayed, because bin suppliers cannot cope with national levels of demand Hounslow Council announced today. The wheeled bin trial was due to start in mid-June but will now begin in July.
Commenting on this announcement Cllr Peter Thompson, Leader of the Conservative Group on Hounslow stated,
“The Council really ought to have done their homework better on this one. It is hardly a surprise that there is a backlog of orders for wheelie bins as councils across the country are putting in their orders thanks to central government funding. Surely someone could have made a few phone calls and found out when we could actually get hold of the bins before planning the June start?”
“There is of course a more basic problem with all this, namely that many of us here in Hounslow don’t want them and resent the council spending thousands on a pilot scheme the benefits of which are uncertain to say the least!”
“Interesting in 2007 when the previous Conservative-led council introduced the new recycling scheme a cross-party group of councillors rejected wheelie bins as being impracticable for many parts of the Borough. They commented that there would be logistical problems for collection on our heavily parked streets and that the bins would have a detrimental effect on the look of our streets. Labour failed to raise this as an issue in the last local elections or to conduct consultation prior to the change of policy. Introducing wheelie will do little to address Hounslow’s poor recycling rate which have flat lined since 2010.”