FAMILIES are fuming after leaked documents revealed council plans to cut black bin collections to once a month.
Bristol City Council plans to reduce the service to slash costs, but residents aren’t impressed.
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The proposal was leaked earlier this week sparking fears of increased fly tipping.
Kelly Haskins, 45, thinks the streets will be littered if the proposal goes ahead.
She said: “It seems bonkers, if they tried to push it to monthly it will upset a lot of people.”
“Your council tax goes up every year and people are in a crisis – I wouldn’t be happy with it.”
She said the bin collection changes will especially affect big families in the area, adding: “I think they will struggle.”
Kelly’s family recycles everything they can and sometimes bins get full every two weeks.
She added: “Educating people about recycling more would be more important.”
A Local Democracy Reporting Service spotted the council document and shared the frustrating news.
The document stated: “Through changes in regulation and increasing operational, inflation and investment costs, our waste and recycling service is facing an additional bill of £5million to £9million per year.
“Without cost reductions we may need to reduce services and performance standards.
“This amount will be reduced if we can recycle more and waste less.”
St George’s resident Hannah Winter, 51, and her partner Sharif Hussain, 59, believe the reduced services are “a little crazy”.
They believe the potential stench could cause an issue and they fail to see the reasoning behind it.
To avoid the risk of reeking rubbish, the pair think black bins should be collected at least every two weeks.
Hannah said: “We are very good at recycling and we take it to the tip.
“I think if a lot of people don’t do the food bin it will be stinky.
“I don’t understand the benefit of changing it.”
Hannah agreed that the council should have a stronger focus on promoting recycling
The mum-of-one said: “We are a family of three and we would struggle – I have noticed when our bins are collected they just chuck them all together.”
In Bristol, recycled rubbish and food waste is collected every week and black bins are collected every two weeks.
Slashing the services by 50 per cent puts locals in a tricky position as they’ll be handling double as much waste as they’re used to by the end of the month.
Grace Billingham, 35, is horrified by the suggestion as she has two kids still at pre-school, with one of them still using nappies.
She said all the new plan would do is “increase fly tipping” and make it harder for families.
Pat Moran, 47, said his family are trying to minimise waste, but they have “a long way to go”.
He added: “I think it will be the trickiest for families – I don’t know if they will have another option.”
The change has not been confirmed.
Home owners will be asked for their thoughts as part of a consultation starting on November 18.
The Sun has reached out to Bristol City Council for comment.
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