Traders fear huge communal recycling bins could drive customers away from Brighton’s North Laine.

Forty-nine glass and mixed recycling bins would be dotted around the area for residents under plans currently being consulted on by Brighton and Hove City Council.

But business owners are furious that while 32,000 letters have been sent to residents, companies are not being consulted at all.

They are concerned the bins will be put in loading bays and close to shop fronts and will deter customers.

Gresham Blake, whose self-titled store is on the corner of Church Street and Bond Street, wrote to the council: “It seems to me that you have no concern for the business community. You have lost all the support from the North Laine.

“I don’t even think you have ever been here, you just looked at a map and went ‘There's a space’, without thinking.”

He said the bins would further hinder lorries which already struggle to use the area, the smell of rubbish was unwanted in a busy restaurant area and he was furious only residents, and not businesses, had been consulted.

'Why do this?'

He added: “The current climate for retail is bad enough without ugly bins outside our shops.

“Traders are the backbone of the area.

“I have a member of staff who has these bins in her street where she lives in Hove.

“She tells me she cannot open the window because of the smell.

“Why do they think they can do this without consulting traders?”

David Sewell, the chairman of North Laine Traders’ Association, said: “I don’t know how the council could think of doing this without consulting the traders.

“Nobody will want these bins in front of their businesses.”

Business don't use bins

A council spokesman said: “Consultation questionnaires have been sent to 32,000 households in the city and this will have included the flats above shops.

“Businesses have not been directly consulted as they don’t use council bins and make their own arrangements for disposing of waste.”

View the scheme at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/communalrecycling. Email comments about the scheme to communalrecycling@brighton-hove.gov.uk by May 6.

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