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news
Coventry bin strike (Coventry Conservatives)Rubbish! Angry residents hit back at council's cycling solution to bin strike
Coventry City Council's advice that residents who are unable to drive to rubbish drop-off sites during bin strikes should use a bike has prompted widespread criticism.
Last Thursday, amidst photos on social media of backed up queues of drivers, a council employee reminded people that the facilities, opened for residents to dispose of household waste while their bins are not being collected, are accessible by bike.
The city's bin strikes have been extended until March after the union Unite confirmed a further 19 days of action following the council failing to negotiate with drivers over pay and working conditions.
Andrew Walster, director of Streetscene, told CoventryLive: "You can also access all of these sites on foot or by bike if you live nearby.
"We concentrated on Tuesday on everyone who's on our assisted collection list in the city. We tried to get to everyone on Tuesday with those along with people who live in flats and those sorts of properties.
"We'll be doing some extra work with some of the more vulnerable people in the city over the next week or so to help with that as well."
However, the council's cycling suggestion did not go down well with almost all of the 500 locals who replied to the local news website's story.
Karleen Michelle said: "On a bike? With bags of rubbish? Having a laugh aren’t they? Whatever next?"
Diane Rowstron wrote: "Okay I’ll balance seven bin bags on my head while I cycle, shall I?"
Others questioned the logic of safely carrying bags without a cargo bike. Although some did offer some innovative solutions, including Stacey Mctigue who shared a photo of the 'trashtrike 3000'.
One brave soul did not see any problem with the council's request. John Grant said he "went on my bike to Hearsall Common yesterday. The guys at the site thought it was funny."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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27 comments
To be totally fair to the people complaining...you literally would need a decent cargo bike to transport multiple bin bags, you just couldn't do it (reasonably) on a normal bike. In reality virtually no one has a cargo bike despite a 'boom' in recent years. Hopefully that will eventually change of course!
To be fair to the council, though, it's not like they're saying 'Stop whining and get on your bike' - they're just letting people know that the option is there if it's a viable one for you.
Complaining about it is a bit like them saying "our centres will be open over Bank Holidays" and people saying that's no good to them because they have to work on the Bank Holiday.
Yeah fair enough
Or a trailer. Can can be relatively cheap and a really useful long term investment. I use my (not so cheap) Burley Travoy two or three times a week, mainly for shopping and the allotment. It won't manage multiple filled bin bags, but would cope with a couple with a little ingenuity.
Here in Derby the local council has recently given permission to cycle to the local recycling centre. Good for them says I, however I've been dropping off any waste I create by cargobike for years.
Must be a trendsetter!!
Or just be more socially minded...
If, like so many folk nowadays, you're going to the tip in your SUV, why not ask your neighbours if they need anything taking, too?
Too obvious...?
Not too obvious for my neighbours who did just that.
Fun fact: the photo used in this article was taken about 200yds from where a lady famously put a cat in a wheelie bin a few years back. Probably wouldn't be room now.
Our local tip can't be accessed on foot or by bike. You have to use a car.
Edit: HP got there first - it clearly isn't a Herts issue
Although this is a bad news story all round (apart from the trashtrike 3000 obviously), I'm actually a bit sympathetic to the council here.. the bin lorry drivers are some of the highest paid in the UK are striking for a 12 (or 15%) increase arguing that other councils are giving their drivers that level of increase.. (but who are paid less than the coventry councils drivers to begin with).. the unions are saying the council aren't talking to them and the councils are saying that the unions aren't responding to calls for talks.. it's a very 'predictable' and has left everyone in Coventry without any bin collections over the christmas period. Asking people to take their rubbish to the tip any way they can is about all the council can do.
I think Coventry CC are pushing it a tad. We have ONE decent stretch of completed posh cycling infra, but nothing I'd ever venture down on a cargo bike and it doesn't a) lead anywhere important or necessary - from the city centre straight uphill to a housing area; or b) join up seamlessly with other infra. The idea that residents could use bikes to transport potentially awkward and heavy loads of rubbish through our downright dangerous streets is laughable.
I can well imagine turning up to the drop-off and being abused or turned away, too - last time I went there it was a long, long line of SUVs.
Meanwhile in Bristol, pedestrians and cyclists are banned from using the recycling centres - you have to use a car.
About to post the same, I'm pretty sure us in neighbouring Birmingham couldn't cycle and use a site. Pretty impressed although comes across as tone deaf when people are talking several weeks of household disposal and recycling if no cargo bike handy.
Several weeks of household rubbish? Has the strike wheelie bin that long?
Same in SGlos, except when I walked there with a broken radio (it's a five minute walk) they tried to make me go away, telling me that pedestrians weren't allowed. I pointed out that everyone was a pedestrian when they got out of their car, but that cut no ice. I ignored the threats of "getting into trouble" and threw the radio in the appropriate bin and walked off. No trouble resulted; but I have been in hiding for the past five years, and moved three years ago, so I'm probably safe now.
You've just blown your cover!
I'd have been tempted to leave it in the middle of the entrance road for them to deal with and walk off. Technically, you might be opening yourself up to littering or some such, but practically, the likelihood of them tracking you down is probably pretty much zero.
Pretty sure North Somerset is the same.
This is one area where Edinburgh seems to do well. You have to book to turn up to a refuse site but they provide a slot to say "bike". On the occasions I've been I've had no issues. Indeed it's clear that staff are sensibly not worried about scrutinising your booking if you've only a bikes' worth of rubbish. I doubt the latter is actual policy though.
So just cycle yours up here!
Thanks for the invite, but as Mrs HawkinsPeter drives, we'll probably use the car and sit in a queue for half an hour (it's so busy that they split access according to whether your number plate is odd or even) to use our local site. It's annoying as we quite often walk past the dump if we walk to Temple Meads station, so it'd be handy to get rid of things that the weekly/fortnightly collections don't accept.
You could always send the household rubbish to Chris via royal mail and he could drop it off for you.
Alas it likely won't fit through the letterbox and as it's flats they won't leave it outside when I don't open the door.
Although it would disuade parcel thieving faster then one of those glitter bombs.
You mean this? Actually if you've useful-looking sort of rubbish "local recycling" could be a way to dispose of it, just put it in your old online shopping packaging and leave it unattended...
On the other hand why not just pay your bin men the going rate for doing a sometimes literally shitty job?*
*Disclaimer not a local so assuming the strikes are justified**.
** Not interested in any toryboy rants either before you start.
Agree, but not wanting to give the Conservatives credit for everything I suspect this applies more widely across councils of different shades. Brighton and Hove (Green Party 20, Labour 16, Conservative 13, Independent 5) was perfectly capable of a barney with staff which caused a bin strike (analysis here - trigger alert for councillors or non-unionists).
Coventry CC have these strikes recurring at least every year - it's linked to the working time regs and working over the holiday/christmas period - so it's not like they haven't had sufficient opportunities to amend the problem.