Nantwich residents are being urged to take litter home after these pictures emerged of overflowing litter and dog poo bins in the town.
Bins near the Nantwich Aqueduct, Mill Island and near Nantwich Lake off Shrewbridge Road were all seen overflowing with piles of rubbish and poo bags littered around them.
Some residents say Cheshire East Council is not emptying bins often enough, despite claims on its website if empties litter bins every day.
A reader who provided these images during a walk around the town said: “If the bins are full…please take your rubbish home!”
But others said the council cannot plan emptying routines based on spontaneous pizza sessions.
We contacted Cheshire East Council to ask how often bins are emptied.
On its website under the “Street Cleansing and Litter” section, it states:
We aim to:
– empty town centre litter bins daily and all other litter and dog bins on at least a weekly basis
– cleanse town centre areas daily and cleanse all other areas frequently
– attend to fly-tipped waste within 24 working hours of a report being received (for waste that can be removed in less than 1 hour as larger deposits may require additional equipment)
– remove offensive graffiti on council land within 48 working hours
– remove fly posting on council land within 2 weeks
Councillor Laura Crane, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for highways and waste, said: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention and I can confirm these bins have now been emptied.
“We would ask people to bear with us during this particular time, owing to the pressures of the Covid-19 lockdown and, where possible, take their litter home to reduce the demand on our bins and our collection teams.
“Our collection teams are employed by the council’s wholly-owned environmental services company Ansa, and they empty 3,041 litter bins across the borough.
“Of these, there are 165 litter bins and 25 dog waste bins in Nantwich, which are emptied at least once a week, while town centre bins are emptied daily, which is sufficient in normal times.
“During the pandemic lockdown, however, with leisure and food outlets closed, except for take-away, we have experienced a large increase in residents using our open spaces and depositing litter from picnics and take-away food and drink containers.
“Currently, our teams are struggling to keep pace with the large increase in litter deposited.
“We would urge residents to work with us on this and we ask for understanding so that during the lockdown period we can all continue to enjoy and benefit from our parks and open spaces across the borough.
“Do please take litter home, especially when a litter bin is full, and please do not leave litter and dog waste bags on the ground, as it is an offence to do so.”
The boat users are supposed to use the rubbish skips in the service area by the marina as officially written in their guide book from Canal and River Trust. I think they just pop down to these bins for convenience, I don’t think it is just local residents filling these particular bins up.
Totally agree. I find beer and cider cans, empty water bottles and food containers thrown on the ground within sight of near empty litter bins. It’s a social issue. We see a lot of publicity about saving the planet but what I see on a daily basis, is that many just don’t care.
Des Thorley please take a reality pill. Carry a bin bag, really!!!!!. With continually increasing Council Tax, lockdown, curfews etc the demand on some public services must be less than previous.. A good analogy, if there was a council vending machine selling items that made them money, would they refill it as soon as it empties????, Sure they would.
As usual a Council not in touch with the needs of those who pay massive contributions.
its you that needs a reality pill mate, bonkers idea of yours what makes you think Ansa are not running ragged trying to clear up after all the lazy people dropping litter? i am sure they have a lot of staff off ill like many public areas. The reality is here just about EVERYONE AND HIS DOG is using the public spaces now 24/7 so it is bound to be messy. If you never carry a bag then that’s just your feeble planning isn’t it?
Funny how the town is cleaned up every night at food and music festivals when money is being made is it not. What is wrong with working hard and doing their job. Are you inferring they do not work hard at other times. How can you defend the indefensible?.
how can they be less than usual, idiot comment to make, how would you know mr guess all richard maybe 50% are off ill or on other work
According to the Council website they empty town centre bins daily and the rest at least weekly. I have not seen town centre bins overflowing like that, so daily is OK there. What the council don’t seem to realise is weekly is just not frequent enough for high use areas just outside the central area, such as Mill Island and the aqueduct. They need to investigate this and review their bin emptying schedule.
OK, it may be a little worse at the moment, but the problem has been there for a number of years.
I have a boat and the travellers use them all the time, I take mine home. There is supposed to be boat users bins, but that stopped earlier this year. It is daft using a bin you can clearly see is full, and expect others to bend and pick up for you. How scummy is that? Far too many people think there are endless funds to run after the feckless, we are indeed a dirty nation, and worse at the moment as everyone is eating and drinking in open spaces, too easy to blame the council all the time, find the answer yourselves
Nantwich has a growing population and at the moment we are all out walking more frequently locally, and getting Take Away drinks/foods etc to support the local businesses. Nantwich has had a litter issue for a long time surrounding the bins. The council need to provide more bins in the highly populated areas of town and on the outskirts like the lake and canal/river area as it’s a common sight that bins are too small or too few. It needs improvement from both the council and the people who live here and visit here.
No you are wrong, they are not using the bins they are allowing the rubbish to fall off onto the floor, that is in fact Fly Tipping.
possibly animals and birds have picked off the top, but given that why is it so difficult to carry a bin bag and take it home?
The council cannot be a 24/7 nanny running after you litterers, and given the amount of food and drink casually consumed in the street, you really have to give more thought and take personal responsibility for your lazy actions.
At least people are using the bins lets be grateful for that. Just a pity our useless council cant provide the services its meant to whilst continuing to find money for virtue signalling
They are providing bins but too few for the growing number of people living here and visiting especially at the moment with take away drinks/food being more frequently consumed etc
It’s not always the Councils fault. So easy to blame a public body for lack of facilities in this case but the answer lies in part with how people behave. All services cost money to operate and the council do not have a bottomless pit of cash that they can sort out every problem with.
Let’s be clear…this issue on report here isn’t a difficult concept to grasp.
“The bin is empty…I can put things in. The bin is full…I will find another bin or take this home.”
The problem here is selfishness and laziness and an unfortunate trait that is evident in parts of our society that there is someone else to clear up my mess.
Well said Phil , it is are own responsibility to look after our planet .
If you buy it dispose of it sensible, always take your rubbish home you bought it