Dear Sir,
On Friday we found a leaflet stuffed through our letterbox from Durham County Council advising us of changes to collections for our rubbish & recycling. I would like to quote two paragraphs of this letter:
‘’A route risk assessment recently carried out revealed that the footways to the rear of your property are narrow, and on collection day when everyone presents their bin and box the footway is restricted so much that the crews are having to physically manoeuvre bins past others that are out for collection.
Our Health & Safety Officer has determined that continually manoeuvring bins using awkward postures could lead to muscular skeletal injuries. Further concerns are the distance that the crews have to pull bins which, in some cases is around 80 metres.’’
It has now been decided that because of these problems, they will no longer collect the bins from our back alleys, another problem being that the collection vehicle is causing obstructions to other road users because they have to park at school crossings etc.
I would like to know the real reason for this. We have lived in the same house for 29 years, and every week we have put our bin out, dustbins at first – which the binmen used to hoist onto their shoulders with no problems – and then later wheelie bins, which could be pushed or pulled – usually both by the now renamed refuse collectors – from our ‘’narrow’’ alleys. Has this decision been determined by the ever increasing ‘Compensation Culture’ which has made our whole country a laughing stock – and made all our solicitors very rich indeed?
A point I would also like to make is that what  would happen if a tenant/houseowner injured him/herself whilst wheeling the bin down our ‘too narrow’ alley. Would we have a case for compensation?
I’m sure that a time and motion study could be employed so that the collection vehicles avoided being anywhere near schools at school start and end times, thus relieving a lot of congestion. I noticed that our particular vehicle arrived at our street at 3.10pm on Friday, at the busiest time for Woodham Primary School, thus causing said congestion.
That really could be avoided. After all, from 9.15am to 2.45pm the area is free. Our particular road is also narrow with cars parked down one side, so the collection vehicle would cause an obstruction in the street at any time – made worse by the amount of bins they would have to stop and empty.
They also suggest that our bins should be brought to the front of our properties, which means bringing it through the house – not possible in our particular case – and I’m sure also in a lot of other property owners. The wheelie bin should be in the back garden, where the kitchen door is, as it is of more use there, as well as the recycling bin. Most people throw their rubbish out from the kitchen surely? A more important point is that wheelie bins left outside gates in the front of our properties, sometimes all day if the owners work, is surely a hazard to wheelchair users and pushchairs.
My husband phoned Mr Ashurst, the Refuse & Recycling Supervisor and after some discussion, it was agreed that we should wheel our bin to end of the alley onto Silkin Way on collection day. This is fine for us but people further along our road will have quite a way to walk with theirs.
I really think that some more thought needs to be put to addressing these problems. Perhaps some sort of meeting with the householders, council and refuse collectors could maybe go far in solving this problem.
Just one further point, perhaps the ‘’narrow’’ alleys could undergo some sort of upgrade, the surface of our particular one is full of pot holes etc which is a hazard to everyone. To my knowledge, there has never been any work carried out on them, perhaps since the houses were built way back in the 50’s. Perhaps somebody could look into the cost of repairs and make them safer for everyone to walk down, not just refuse collectors.
Mrs Gillian Stevens
Marshall Road

EDITOR: This item has been placed on the agenda at the Great Aycliffe Residents’ Association Public Meeting on Thursday 19th July in St. Mary’s Church at 7pm. everyone welcome.