We can't empty your wheelie bin... we might get hurt: Barmy ‘elf and safety rules stop dustmen taking pensioner’s ONE bag away - and call in 'specialists'

Published 02nd Mar 2011

Binmen have been banned from taking rubbish out of dustbins following a barmy health and safety ruling.

Bill Craig, 80, has used a wheelie bin to help him carry one small black bag of rubbish to the end of his drive every week for the past two years.

But the pensioner was stunned when bosses from Colchester Borough Council left him a warning note saying he was using the wrong kind of container for his rubbish.

Officials told a bemused Mr Craig that binmen could no longer lean in to the wheelie bin to take away the black bag - in case they injured themselves.

And astonishingly the council will now use a specialist team to go to the former fisherman's semi-detached house in West Mersea, Essex, to collect the rubbish instead.

Mr Craig, who has had a heart attack and suffers from chronic back pain, said: 'This is officialdom gone barmy - the council is being held to ransom by health and safety rules.

'You could lift our black bin bag out using two fingers - it is not heavy.

'I was amazed when they told me that they would come and collect it specially - it's only a few food scraps.

'There are only two of us here now so there is not much rubbish but health and safety has gone barmy and you cannot argue with them.

'Considering the state of the country's finances - surely it would be better to try to economise rather than create more costs.

'When I was a kid, the dustmen used to come to the back of the house and collect the dustbin - there were ten of us yet they could still collect it and take the rubbish out to their cart.

'Everybody I have spoken to about it thinks that it is absolutely mad.'

Mr Craig suffered a heart attack in 1992 and is due to have his fourth pacemaker fitted while wife Norma, 79, has a replacement hip so their four grown-up children decided to buy the wheelie bin to help them move the waste and recycling to the end of their drive.

The waste would be collected by the binmen the following morning - a process that he said worked like clockwork.

But now that the rubbish will be collected from next to the backdoor, he has warned them the waste will still be in the wheelie bin because he does not want foxes to get to it overnight.

He said: 'My concern is the cost - but they are adamant that they will do it as they have to abide by the regulations.

'I have been quite happily taking out the wheelie bin for two years for them and if I could keep to that arrangement I would be happy - I don't like to create unnecessary expense.

'I have contacted people at the council and they have said they are 'sick to death' of all the health and safety and the power that the unions have over what does and does not happen in the work place.

'I was told this all came about because one bin man leaned in and pulled a ligament in his arm and was then off work for a year on full pay and is suing the council.

'If I put it the rubbish out the night before the foxes would get to it and it would be strewn all over the road by the morning.

'I have now been told that a dedicated team of people will come and collect the rubbish because they say I am an invalid - I am 80 but I am still capable of taking a wheelie bin out there to be emptied by the dustmen.

'I take the bin up the drive - it's about 30 yards - then across the pavement onto a grass verge which is about 2ft from the road - it's that close to the road that if the bin fell over it would land next to the lorry.

Colchester Borough Council does not supply wheelie bins and has said that workmen could injure themselves leaning into the bin to pull out waste.

A council spokeswoman said: 'There has not been a change in policy but more and more people have been buying wheelie bins and we are not a council that is set up with lorries to empty wheelie bins.

'When we asked people in our last consultation on waste if they wanted wheelie bins, just 29 people said they did.

'Yes, there are health and safety issues when you have a wheelie bin that is a metre high as it is not appropriate for workers to have to lean into them to get the rubbish out.

'There will not be an additional cost from the assisted collection, it will be the same crew that does the round, but they will go down to collect the rubbish from the door.'

Source: ' Daily Mail '

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