Eagley Bank residents shocked and angered after bins removed

Bolton Council removed the bins from the 'Gardens estate' in Eagley Bank for good on November 13.

Neil McAllion, one of the estate's residents, had been waiting on a collection for more than 11 weeks before the bin was taken.

He said: “It’s called The Gardens for a reason – it’s part of Eagley Bank Conservation Area.

“There’s so many trees in the area – we’ve just got this accumulation of garden waste and there’s nowhere to put it.

“How are we supposed to manage it?”

The Gardens estate in Eagley Bank conservation area (Image: Newsquest) The council will now be collecting garden waste along with general waste in the grey bin, and have offered to exchange small bins for larger ones free of charge.

Neil said: “We already have the 240 litre bins, the biggest they have.

“I think some people took the option to have a smaller waste bin when the recycling schemes were extended.

“We actually ended up with four bins.

“Now garden waste is going into the grey bin as well.

“It’s ridiculous and goes against their whole recycling policy. Bins in the past have been refused because the wrong waste was inside.

“We will just end up with certain people ignoring the waste stream all together – putting everything in the same bin or in a skip, which costs money.

“You may even end up with people fly tipping, I see a lot of it and it’s not nice to see.”

A letter informing residents of the changes was delivered on November 11.

In the letter, the council said that they would be using a "limited fleet of alternative collection vehicles" which are smaller and have a reduced carrying capacity.

Bolton Council removed all green bins from The Gardens on November 13 (Image: Newsquest) A spokesperson for Bolton Council said: “The Andrew Lane area (from Westcliffe Avenue upwards) including Ollerton Terrace, Ollerton Street Playfair Street, Park View and The Gardens, are all serviced by the council’s rural/hard-to-reach crew and as a result all residents in this area benefit from a 240 litre grey bin.

“Most other residents in Bolton have a slim 140 litre grey bin for general waste.

“The rural/hard-to-reach crew use a smaller 16-tonne collection vehicle due to the very narrow roads it must access, which is hampered further by any on-street parking.

"Unfortunately, due to the small number of 16-tonne vehicles available within the service, we are not able to offer green bin collections for hard-to-reach areas.

“Residents are compensated by having an additional 100 litres of capacity in their residual grey bin which is collected every two weeks.

“Historically, green bin collections in the area were ad-hoc due to the service only having access to a 26-tonne vehicle.

“Letters were shared with relevant ward councillors during the week commencing 23 September and the service delivered letters to affected residents in early November.

“Following a comprehensive review of all routes it has become clear that there are some locations across the borough whereby some residents on rural/hard-to-reach rounds are benefitting from additional residual capacity and have green bin collections.

“This is not in line with the service received by the majority of residents. The service is therefore seeking to align bin collections with the council’s current policies.”

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Living in a conservation area means there are limits to what people living there can do to modify their homes or the surrounding trees.

A sycamore tree growing in Neil’s front garden is the source of a lot of garden waste, but he cannot cut it down due to a Tree Protection Order.

Neil said: “Access is difficult at times but they generally do collections in the morning when most people are at work and the cars that obstruct access are absent from the area.”

A protected sycamore tree leaves piles of leaves in Neil's garden (Image: Newsquest) Bolton Council drew controversy in October when they announced plans to charge up to 80,000 households a £45 per year charge for garden waste collection.

They said that this scheme would not affect hard-to-reach areas that do not have either a green bin or a caddy.

The council had announced changes to collection days in July with less frequent collections for some bins.

Both changes are part of a money-saving drive by the council as they come under increasing financial pressure.