Agenda item

Report of the Director of the Built Environment.

The Committee received a report of the Director of the Built Environment which provided details of a litter intervention trial in partnership with Keep Britain Tidy.

In response to a Member’s query on whether there was an adequate number of bins installed across the City, particularly as the public were being asked in the poster to “find a bin”, the Assistant Director of Cleansing explained that the poster appended to the report before Members was not a final version and he would look at the wording used. The Assistant Director of Cleansing explained that the approach on the number of bins in the City had been agreed by the Committee in 2010 and officers were of the opinion that the current strategy was effective, and that high capacity bins were now used. The Assistant Director of Cleansing explained that adding further bins would require more resourcing and this would impact staffing, costs and maintenance. He surmised that it would be better to address the behaviour of people rather than increase the number of bins. 

A discussion took place amongst Members on how to address behaviour regarding littering. It was suggested that a QR code be included within the posters which would provide a map of bins in the area. Members observed that littering remained an issue and it would be helpful if the next report to Committee on this topic provided details on the success of the campaign and how this was measured.

A Member suggested that it would be timely to conduct another a review of the policy regarding the number of bins in the City.

The Chairman asked the Director of the Built Environment to provide a report to either the May or July 2019 Committee meeting containing details on the number of bins in the City and the factors that had changed since 2010.

RESOLVED – That the Committee note the report.