More giant bins could be heading to Brighton and Hove

12:58pm Monday 28th January 2008

By Lawrence Marzouk

Even more giant bins could be heading for Brighton and Hove to cater for recycling.

Brighton and Hove City Council is considering bringing in the communal containers for recycling on top of the 600 already pencilled in for normal rubbish.

A council spokeswoman said there were currently no firm plans to use communal recycling in the city centre.

She added that the council was 'testing the market' to see what products were available as it develops a wider strategy to improve recycling.

The council kicked off its search for a supplier in early December and closed the first round of bids on January 11.

The tender document reveals: "Brighton and Hove City Council has at present about 200 communal bins in street, verge and beach locations for the deposit and collection of refuse.

"We are planning to expand this with another 600 refuse containers during 2008 and are considering the use of similar containers for co-mingled recycling and for glass.

"In all there will be three types of bin required, refuse, dry-recycling and glass."

A council spokeswoman said: "The council has no plans to roll out communal recycling in the city centre.

"We provide a weekly doorstep recycling service in the city centre and there are no plans to stop or change this.

"We do provide communal recycling on some of our estates and in blocks of flats. We are testing the market to see what products are available.

"We are currently developing a strategy setting out options to improve recycling performance across the city.

"This strategy will be subject to full public consultation before any changes will be considered.

The council wants to install almost 575 skip-sized black metal bins in 2008, affecting 185,000 residents between Davigdor Road and the seafront and from Sackville Road in Hove to Boundary Road in Kemp Town.

The scheme has been proposed as a way of keeping the city cleaner and stopping bin bags being left in the streets.

But opponents have claimed the bins will be an eyesore, take up 140 sought-after parking and could lead to a drop in recycling.

Councillor Pete West, who represents St Peter's and North Laine, has complained that the maps in the consultation leaflets make it difficult to know exactly where they are planned for.

Coun Paul Elgood, who represents the Brunswick ward where dozens of bins are pencilled in, said: "The fact they have already put the contract out to tender makes a mockery of the consultation process.

"Residents have worked hard with the black box system and they have got it working.

Communal bins would be emptied six days a week and require fewer workers than individual collections.

The containers in use are mostly 3,200 litres but the council is also ordering a limited number of 2,400 and 1,800 litre bins.

The council has promised the extra staffing hours would be deployed elsewhere, perhaps to move recycling collections from fortnightly to weekly.

Residents have been able to comment on the introduction of the 575 bins since Thursday.

The council has said a decision on the scheme will be put to the council's environment committee once the consultation has finished.

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