Shoppers react to reduced bin collections plan

Sonata Dambrauskiene, 38, says there "will be quite a few complaints" if a proposal to move bin collections to every three weeks is approved

Shoppers in an Essex town have reacted to a council proposal to reduce the number of bin collections.

Braintree District Council (BDC) will consider changing collections for general waste from every two weeks to every three weeks as part of a wider plan of proposals.

Sonata Dambrauskiene, 38, said: "There are some families who have more than four or five people, where are they going to put extra rubbish? It's not fair on the families."

A BDC spokesperson told the BBC: "No decisions have been made yet. The council's cabinet will discuss the proposals and consider a public consultation on Monday, 16 December, 2024."

Sarah Houghton, 50, says three weeks is too long to wait for general waste collections

The council said the proposed changes would be in an effort to enhance recycling rates and reduce the amount of general waste sent to landfill.

After falling below its recycling target of 50% in 2020, BDC said it is looking to make up the deficit for their next target of 55% in 2025.

If approved by the council, an eight-week public consultation will commence on 6 January, before a final report is presented to its cabinet in May.

If approved, the changes would be introduced from April 2026.

BDC said it will assess the approximate 24% of properties that will have difficulty storing all the bins.

James Abbott, Green Party councillor for Silver End and Cressing, said a related issue was the new waste incinerator at Rivenhall that is set to be operational next year.

"Anything that goes in the black bins is literally going straight there to be burnt, and that's for the whole of Essex... if we don't recycle, a lot more material is going to be incinerated." he told BBC Essex.

'Disgusted'

Brian Polson, 87, said: "As it is now, it's farcical and to make it worse than that, which I think it would, then I don't believe in that at all."

Brian's wife, Janet Polson, 84, said she would like to see a trial period before any plans are put into place.

A consultation could result in bin collections occurring every three weeks

Cleaner Sarah Houghton, 50, said three weeks was "too long to wait to have your bins emptied... it'll just all mount up and people will start fly tipping".

She added that she does not have room for all three proposed wheelie bins. "I don't want all that in my garden."

Lisa Stiff, 57, said she was "disgusted" by the proposal.

"Years ago they used to collect it every week, and then it went to fortnightly," she added.