Leamington residents could get ‘knock on door’ for putting bin bags out on wrong days

Leamington town centre residents could get a knock on the door from council officials for putting out bin bags on the wrong day amid concern over waste on the streets.

Zoe Court, neighbourhood services manager at Warwick District Council (WDC), revealed the idea during a discussion of problems emanating from the 123+ waste system that was rolled out last year.

A report to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee – a panel of councillors that looks at the work of the authority and makes recommendations about potential improvements – said the expected levels of service had been achieved in most areas.

However, it has been acknowledged that the move from weekly to fortnightly black bag collections of non-recyclable waste has caused a problem in the centre of Leamington “which is predominately areas comprising flat and shared accommodation and with concentrations of students in residence”.

The report read: “The view originally taken was that the 123+ cycle of collections would work in that area.

"However, it has not, and significant resources are required to clear weekly fly-tipping on the street.

“There have been understandable complaints from residents in these areas with concerns about the health and visual impact.

"There is a case to review collections in those limited areas with the possibility of a return to weekly collections, albeit at additional cost to the contract.”

If the review advocates such a change, it is currently planned to bring that forward in time for the 2024-25 budget-setting process.

During questions from the committee, Ms Court noted that some properties have “very limited storage”.

“Some of these properties have nowhere to store their bags,” she said.

“It is a problem, you could say, that could have been foreseen. Indeed, it was, but that wasn’t a contract that Warwick was leading on at the time because we were merging, it was led by Stratford. We are now looking at that.”

Committee chair Councillor Andrew Milton (Lib Dem, Kenilworth St John’s) asked when a different level of service might be expected to kick in but Ms Court indicated the council would look to resolve the problem with residents before changing the programme.

“We need to do some education in those town centres first,” she replied.

“There is a lot of transient community, HMOs (shared houses), short-lets, and not just students.

"People are coming and going, so do they know how and when to present their waste?

“Some of it could be a case of them not knowing, they see someone else put out their waste so they put theirs out too.

“The team of two will be going out to do some doorstepping where bins are out on the wrong day, to try that first to see what impact that has.

“We are also building a picture of the streets in Leamington where we are getting the highest volume of reports of fly-tipping to look at what we could do differently.”