Rescued from rubbish

Published 4 May 2010 09:00

A MUM - who says she was forced to pile bags of rubbish in her kitchen as a result of new fortnightly bin collections - has seen her "nightmare" end after the Reporter stepped in.

Marie Dobbin lives in a flat with her two-year-old daughter, Nikole, and her two grown-up sons.

She says the family were already filling their grey wheelie bin - used for non-recyclable waste - every week before the weekly collections were changed to fortnightly last month.

But desperate Marie, 43, from Brucehill, called the Reporter after West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) refused to take away her excess rubbish.

She claims she tries to recycle what she can and explained that she had left the bags, which did not fit in her regular wheelie bin, on the pavement outside her home on collection day.

However, this is in breach of WDC's new Waste Awareness campaign, which states that all rubbish has to fit in the grey/green bin with the lid fully closed if you want it taken away.

After council workers left her rubbish lying in the street, Marie was worried that her neighbours would complain and took the bags into her house.

She said: "It is getting too much for me. [The bins] are collected once a fortnight now, that's no good to me.

"They told my neighbour they won't collect the extra bags outside because they are not in the bin - but the bin is full.

"My kitchen will be overflowing with bags - I can't have that happen because I have the wee one.

"I don't want to put more bags out the front because I'm worried people might complain, I really can't win.

"Some of the families [in the area] have lots of kids, how are they going to cope? - I'm not going to be the only one."

WDC told Marie that she fell short of its requirements to be allocated an additional wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.

However, the Reporter contacted Dumbarton councillor Geoff Calvert on Marie's behalf on Friday and, within a few hours, he phoned us back to say WDC's Housing and Environmental staff had visited Marie's flat, taken all the bags away and gave her more expert guidance on how to properly recycle her rubbish.

Councillor Calvert added that they also provided her with the extra wheelie bin she desperately needs.

Happy that Marie's situation had been resolved, the Labour councillor for Dumbarton, said: "Following my call to the director, the department acted very quickly indeed - they have sorted the issue.

"If people experience issues like this they shouldn't forget to go to their councillor, whoever it is, but the council should also be aware that when new things come in [like the less frequent collections], it needs to be flexible.

"The policy was written for the right reasons, we want people to recycle, but different people have different circumstances.

"The last thing we want is rubbish building up in people's homes and in the street."

Marie said: "It all worked out in the end, but I had to come to the Reporter to get it done."

AN anti-violence campaign has been rolled out by police to target known offenders and hotspot locations - with "outstanding" results.

The Collective Violence and Knife Crime campaign aims to disrupt anti-social behaviour, disorder and violence and to address knife crime within the community.

In the last four weeks, within Dumbarton and Alexandria, police arrested two men from the Vale, who were remanded in custody after allegedly being found in possession of knives.

In addition, a 22-year-old Vale man was arrested on Wednesday April 14 for allegedly possessing a knife at an address in Heather Avenue, Alexandria.

The man pled guilty at Dumbarton Sheriff Court the following day and sentence was deferred to later this month.

Also, a 15-year-old boy from Dumbarton will be the subject of a report to the children's reporter for allegedly carrying an offensive weapon in the common close area of a block of flats in Merkins Avenue, Bellsmyre, on the afternoon of Tuesday April 13.

And an 18-year-old Dumbarton woman was arrested for allegedly carrying a razor blade and class C drugs after being searched by police on patrol on Crosslet Road, Dumbarton, on the night of Saturday April 24.

Anti-violence coordinator, Inspector Ian Millar, said: "This activity to address knife carrying has contributed to the level of serious violent crime dropping by 20 per cent compared to this time last year."

As part of the anti-violence campaign, officers have searched 156 people, seizing 189 litres of alcohol and issued 30 fixed penalty tickets for street drinking or urinating in public.

A further 10 people have been reported for alleged drugs offences and vandalism.

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This article appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 04 May 10

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