15 April (Part 1) - Bexley’s unfair refuse disposal services
My nearest neighbour doesn’t seem to be very aware of what constitutes
conventional civic norms. If I didn’t cut his lawn and hedge neither would ever
get cut and I suspect that if I didn’t look after their green bin it would rarely be emptied.
In the past large heaps of rubbish have accumulated in their front garden and it
is me who has to look at it. That is why in recent years I have taken the view that
it is better to sort through their rubbish myself. Every two weeks I transfer their excess
to my near empty bin. Sometimes four green bins from nearby houses have to be
pressed into service to accommodate the excess.
It is not the most pleasant job and two weeks ago, having satisfactorily redistributed
everything in the hour before the collection was due, I was annoyed to see an
additional black sack put in my own bin with the lid left up thereby risking it being ‘red tagged’.
I decided I had had enough of being bin monitor.
This morning my green bin was near empty and next door’s was overflowing. I left them
like it, fearing the worst. Somewhat to my surprise, the overflowing bin was
emptied, but not before I had conducted a survey of the bin situation along my road.
I discovered that there are three different sized green bins in use. 240 litres,
140 litres (mine), and a much smaller one, 80 litres if I had to guess.
The different house occupancy rates mean that bin capacity per person ranges from 28
litres through 70 litres and 120 litres to 140 litres. Somewhere there could
be a 240 litre per person household.
What excuse does Bexley Council have for treating individual residents so differently? Why are they
happy for me to produce 70 litres of rubbish a week, but next door only 14?
Maybe it is Old Farm Park logic again.
Severely punish the few in order to conceal from as many residents as possible
the ever reducing levels of service.
Whilst it was pleasing to see that the collection crew was sympathetic towards
the overfilled bin next door, their generosity did not extend to a bin that, for whatever reason
had fallen over. They simply stared at it for a moment and then walked on by leaving the mess on the ground.
(See picture.) Clearly they take as little pride in the borough as do the fly tippers.
Should I recommence my rubbish redistribution service for the common good or should I leave
the uncollected rubbish to be fly tipped? At present I am inclined towards the latter.
Ultimately, as with most of life’s unnecessary inconveniences, we have the European Union to thank for the
decline in rubbish collection services. Too many rules over which we have no say
must be slavishly obeyed. The latest is an EU vote in favour of the concentrated
glyphosate I bought for the patio a month or two ago, being declared illegal. All the
effective weed killers will have gone.
If Britain does not reject the EU in two months time the tyrants that control it will
surely see that as the green light for imposing ever more draconian restrictions on freedom
of choice, both personal and national.