There have been calls for new homes to be built with wheelie bin in storage areas – if it’s agreed to change from bags.
Coun Rob Gibson also said that bin collection points for private drives should be scrapped when speaking to a Lincolnshire County Council committee looking to create planning guidance for the whole area to follow.
Following government guidance, it’s looking to put together a Street Design Code.
It will aim to tell developers what ‘good design’ looks like in terms of highways, surface water flood risk, drainage and street design.
While most planning applications are dealt with by the district council, the county council is a consultant on these issues.
Coun Gibson told the Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee: “I notice in other areas they’re building wheelie bin storage into their houses.
“Coun Jack Tyrrell (South Holland District Council’s portfolio holder for waste, who was present at the meeting) has not decided whether we’re having wheelie bins yet but maybe for the future that’s something that could be considered.
“I think it looks a lot neater and tidier.”
Coun Gibson asked for waste collection points on private drives to be outlawed, describing them as ‘the bane of my life’.
“Everybody hates them and as soon as they’re emptied there’s a bag there straight away. It causes infestations.”
He also called for more streetlights which aren’t switched off after midnight, as is current county council policies.
“Our estates are dark overnight. Maybe there’s some new method out there we can look at to ask our developers to put into this project so we can get some lighting back into our estates as soon as possible.”
Lincolnshire County Council’s growth manager Becky Phillips-Melhuish responded: “One of the things we intend to include is more guidance on preventing the sheer number of private drives because they’re not the best.
“I’m not saying we can outlaw private drives completely but we can reduce the number of those which will reduce the number of bin collection points. There’s a whole host of reasons why we’d look to do that.
“I absolutely agree on the wheelie bin storage, particularly on terraced houses. We need to be realistic about how people live in their spaces. If they have to drag their wheelie bin 100 yards they’re not going to do it, they’ll just leave it on the front. It’s something we’ll try and push and it will form part of the Street Design Code.
“The street lighting will also be part of the piece of work we’re doing.”
