Dunstan's Rd is a lovely street, but... (ugly bins)

[Nigello]

..why are there so many of our ugly bins stored outside gardens and on the pavement? Some householders are simply choosing not to make room for them and the result is an eyesore. If you have a bin that can be housed in your property, please do so. Young children, parents and assorted pets are having to fight for space, some of them going into the road, which can get pretty busy during the school run hours.

[rendelharris]

Could not agree more, same applies to Copleston - special mention for the houses that have done up their front gardens nicely and clearly don't want to mess them up so leave the bins on the street permanently. Recently had to move half a dozen bins out of the way so an elderly lady using a powered wheelchair could get down the pavement without having to retrace her tracks by a hundred yards or risk bumping off the kerb into the road. Very selfish behavior!

Kudos to the refuse collectors I must say; we put our bins out the morning of collection, nine times out of ten they've been returned to our storage area by the time I go out to bring them in - so the binmen are doing their part, we should too!

[Nigello]

Binmen (I have yet to see a female binperson) do not always put them back. In and around Goodrich, they are nearly always left on the pavement. Perhaps certain routes are busier and the time allotted is not enough or perhaps they simply CBA.

[1921]

Ashbourne Grove residents use them to protect parking spaces and then leave them on the street which is very unneighbourly and a huge hazard as people end up walking in the road. The bin men we have are very good at putting them back on the correct property.

[McMurphy]

agree ... very selfish behaviour (and against planning regs) to develop a front garden without leaving space for bins, with the intention of permanently keeping them on the pavement.

Anyone who's ever tried to navigate the pavement with a buggy (especially double or when busy) will know what I mean.

If they've been deliberately left out on the pavement (as opposed to not been returned following bin day), and are blocking the way, I suggest moving them onto the entrance to the owner's front garden.

[uncleglen]

if they are on the pavement- does that mean anyone can dump their rubbish in them? Just a thought!

[gabys1st]

AS awheelchair user I find narrowing pavements by leaving bins on them **************************8

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

I don't particularly understand the angst about bins on pavements. I have mobility issues that aren't as obvious to the casual observer, but have more problems with parents with buggies/prams trying to force right of way than I do navigating bins. The only exception is when they are not left flush with the fence, but that's usually the binmen rather than owners.

[rendelharris]

P.O.U.S.theWonderCat Wrote:

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> I don't particularly understand the angst about

> bins on pavements. I have mobility issues that

> aren't as obvious to the casual observer, but have

> more problems with parents with buggies/prams

> trying to force right of way than I do navigating

> bins. The only exception is when they are not

> left flush with the fence, but that's usually the

> binmen rather than owners.

I think if you had to use a wheelchair you'd soon understand - as noted above, there are many roads where there simply isn't space for a chair to get through even if the bins are flat against the wall - Bellenden Road is particularly bad in this respect. But even for the fully able bodied they're a pain in the arse, continually having to stop to let others through as there's only room for people to pass in single file. Also they uglify the streetscape, all because people can't be bothered to spend ten seconds getting them in.

[jimbo1964]

Yes I agree. It's not so hard to put them back in your garden once the bin people have emptied them.

[monica]

I have never understood why bins are used to save parking spaces, I know parking is now premium in East Dulwich, and I am forever circulating round the roads looking for a space. However if I saw a bin being left on the road deliberately for parking, then you may see me move it and use the space myself.

There are some lovely storage containers you can put in the front garden space, iv seen them on the East Dulwich Rd, where the pavements are very narrow.

[Nigello]

My gripe is that they are likely to cause obstruction which, on certain roads at certain times, could make an accident more likely to happen. I also think they look really ugly and could encourage tipping and littering. (One of the brown bins, meant for garden waste, is full of any old rubbish and it has no lid.) Again, if this is you - please put the bin back in the yard/garden!

[cariad]

Southwark Council will exchange blue and green bins for smaller sized ones at no cost . Obviously fit more easily into a small garden and be more suitable for a smaller family . I rarely even fill mine more than half way

[bigsis]

My gripe is the awful smell in the warm weather makes me often walk in the road, eg Crebor Street, and how ugly they all look on the pavements - the upper part of Upland Road as well as Dunstans Road.

[tomskip]

It's absurd that more or less every household in ED has a full size brown wheelie bin, especially as so many gardens are tiny and can't possibly yield a full bin's worth of garden waste every week. They are such an eyesore especially on the streets where there is no choice but to store bins on the pavement.

[Nigello]

So, we're mainly agreed that bins on the pavement with no good reason is a bad thing. The only way forward is to put roll them back over the threshold (though I have sent Cllr Barber a link to this thread) and/or ask your neighbours to keep them in the right place.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

If I used a wheelchair I might, Ren, but I doubt that most of the people complaining on EDF are, hand on heart, thinking of wheelchair users. They are thinking of prams, aesthetics, notions of what constitutes proper social rules and, on one occasion I've seen, a completely unsubstantiated claim that bins out causes crime.

If the good EDFers are going to start putting disabled people foremost, they may want to also reflect how difficult it can be when you are mobility restricted to get wheelie bins back in. I have had rabid neighbours get in a lather because it often takes me more than a day to get them all in, on the strength only that they object to things being "ugly".

[Jules-and-Boo]

We have three massive bins and a small front garden.

Perhaps there's too much packaging on our shopping if we all are expected to get these filled every week.

[rendelharris]

P.O.U.S.theWonderCat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If I used a wheelchair I might, Ren, but I doubt

> that most of the people complaining on EDF are,

> hand on heart, thinking of wheelchair users. They

> are thinking of prams, aesthetics, notions of what

> constitutes proper social rules and, on one

> occasion I've seen, a completely unsubstantiated

> claim that bins out causes crime.

>

> If the good EDFers are going to start putting

> disabled people foremost, they may want to also

> reflect how difficult it can be when you are

> mobility restricted to get wheelie bins back in.

> I have had rabid neighbours get in a lather

> because it often takes me more than a day to get

> them all in, on the strength only that they object

> to things being "ugly".

Well...if they're thinking of prams and aesthetics I'd say both of those are justified complaints really. If they're claiming bins cause crime then they're talking rubbish (ho ho). If your neighbours complain about your bins being out without offering to lend you a hand as needed then they should be deposited in them! If the bin men forget to put ours back I usually put our neighbours' back as well, just to be neighbourly...

It is a serious point about wheelchairs though, as above, I have had to shift them to help wheelchair users get through, more than once.

[drewd]

What I find so ridiculous and ironic is that in streets in East Dulwich that are lined with bins that haven't been taken back into their gardens/yards there is still litter! People have an endless supply of bins to choose from and they still drop litter on the pavement.

[uncleglen]

drewd Wrote:

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> What I find so ridiculous and ironic is that in

> streets in East Dulwich that are lined with bins

> that haven't been taken back into their

> gardens/yards there is still litter! People have

> an endless supply of bins to choose from and they

> still drop litter on the pavement.

You call them 'people'...very generous of you

[Nigello]

There is nothing wrong in being concerned about the ugliness of one's environment. I am bothered by the bins because they are ugly and also because they cause micro-annoyances, like having to walk in the road in an area of busy footfall, and because they attract other litter (with folk stacking stuff around them thinking they are not littering because they have put their trash near rather than in a bin). Other people's anti-socialness and selfishness is also annoying and should be challenged. I get that it is not a huge deal in the scheme of things but that shouldn't stop people from trying to make micro-improvements to their immediate environment.

[P.O.U.S.theWonderCat]

As much as I wish you were my neighbuur instead Ren, you're missing my point. You cited the wheelchair users' plight - I pointed out that's nothing to do with why people complain about this kind of thing for the most part.

Nigello, I appreciate the accumulation of small grievances can add up in modern society. I do think people lose perspective with these things though - and clearly in my case to the extent that some people get whipped up by threads like this, and take it as support that their sense of aesthetics are worth abusing a disabled person over.

C'mon guys. This curtain-twitchy stuff does not help our community.

[drewd]

I'm with Nigello. It should be possible to have a conversation on the state of our shared public spaces and the benefits of looking after them better without being accused of curtain twitching.

[Calsug]

I?m genuinely curious when we as a nation lost the the pride in our surroundings and houses that it has got to the point where someone who thinks having wheely bins all over the place/ general detritus on the street is accused of being petty and trivial - it is not modern society to be a slob. Go to many other countries who clearly are also part of a modern society and leaving bins or rubbish in front of your house is either totally unacceptable or against the law

You can?t deny that if all the streets had wheely bins moved back to their correct places the streets would look better and walking down them would be more pleasant. Maybe it might make London which is a busy and crowded place just a little bit nicer to live in if we all had some form of collective respect instead people being accused of NIMBYISM

P.O.U.S.theWonderCat Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> As much as I wish you were my neighbuur instead

> Ren, you're missing my point. You cited the

> wheelchair users' plight - I pointed out that's

> nothing to do with why people complain about this

> kind of thing for the most part.

>

> Nigello, I appreciate the accumulation of small

> grievances can add up in modern society. I do

> think people lose perspective with these things

> though - and clearly in my case to the extent that

> some people get whipped up by threads like this,

> and take it as support that their sense of

> aesthetics are worth abusing a disabled person

> over.

>

> C'mon guys. This curtain-twitchy stuff does not

> help our community.