By Mark Smulian | 16 August 2013
All new homes should be provided with space to store dustbins unobtrusively, Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has said.
Pickles announced today that he intends to change planning guidance to ‘require suitable provision to be made for proper waste storage in new homes’. He said he objected to wheelie bins and recycling boxes clogging up front yards, gardens and driveways.
Under the proposed change to planning guidance, new homes would have spaces designed so that bins were not visible from street frontages.
‘For years badly-placed wheelie bins and the proliferation of multiple bins have created a blot on the landscape. In streets up and down the country, ugly bin clutter has ruined the street scene and the look of people’s homes and gardens,’ Pickles added.
‘By ensuring that developers create appropriate waste storage areas when designing new homes, we can tackle the ghastly gauntlet of bin-blighted streets and driveways.’
Today’s announcement follows the Department for Communities and Local Government’s attempts last year to offer councils money to restore weekly collections of waste, but only 85 councils were awarded funds.
Pickles has also used the Deregulation Bill this summer to prevent councils from fining those who put their dustbins out on the wrong day, or with the wrong contents.
