Monday, June 20, 2011

Blue bin debate hits the local mainstream media

Recently this observer heard from one Fishertown resident who told us that he had been to the council to refuse a blue bin on the grounds that he had nowhere to put it and that he was willing to continue to make regular trips up the road to the recycling centre. We also know one other Fishertown resident who has to traipse bins through the house from the rear garden on collection days, if she put them outside then pedestrians would have to walk on the road. So not everywhere can accommodate a range of bins easily especially some parts of the Fishertown. There has been quite a bit of debate recently on the Gurn on the merits or otherwise of the blue bins but now the argument has exploded onto the pages of the Nairnshire Telegraph with an intervention from Fishertown resident Audrey Young who suggests in a a hard-hitting letter that they should be removed. More in your weekly paper.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

If its a choice between walking to a collection point or having the bin in thr garden, I would stick with the bin in the garden.It might be ok on a lovely sunny day but its no fun walking in Fishertown when winter comes and the roads have not been grited.

Rob said...

many houses in fishertown do not even have a garden to put a bin in. This leads to congestion on the miniscule pavements with associated hygine / health risks that come with bins being knocked or blown over. A poor example of Highland council one size fits all thinking.

Anonymous said...

why should some people be forced to recycle and others not, that doesn't seem right, and it would be unenforcable

Anonymous said...

Why not get the bulldozers in & demolish tho old dilapidated fishertown buildings that dont even have a garden & build brand new houses with large gardens which would also have enough space for the bins dont think this would cause to much upheaval
as most of the home owners rent their propertys as holiday homes.

Reality said...

If some Fishertown residents truly want the area to retain an authentic air then why not ban all cars as well as blue bins? I'm sure a large car park could be built on the Maggot, and olde worlde residents could stumble home through the streets from the light of one or two gas lamps. Cars in the Fishertown are much more of a hazard than any bin

I assume they would also shun all modern amenities, so they would light their coal driven ranges for cooking, collect water from the well, and have a wee midden to burn their scraps

I suspect that the great majority would no be happy to adopt 'authentic' living as of a couple of centuries ago when most of their houses were built, and instead will continue to snipe from behind centrally heated plastic windows at anything deemed out of character which for whatever reason they don't like!

Planning failed many generations ago to maintain the true Fishertown, probably about the same time as the fishing industry went into decline in Nairn.

Meanwhile, like it or not the area has seen many incomers, some of whom seem to have their own rose tinted ideas as to how the area should look.

But in 2011 we have a serious issue of rubbish, and for now blue bins are the answer that we have been given. I suggest they live with it just like every other change we have learned to accept

Anonymous said...

I live in Fishertown and I am thankful these bins have arrived. It will save driving those miles to the tip to recycle our plastic and our cardboard. For those that live in Fishertown and don't want one fair enough but I'd love to know where in Nairn you can recycle your plastic and cardboard without having to drive to the tip. As far as I am aware there is no recycling point in walking distance except for glass.

Rob said...

@Reality. this isn't about maintaining some pretence of a authentic olde worlde fishing village. We are not agrguing for fancy lamp posts and cobbled streets - Im all for parking my car away from the house( as I frequently need to) and making all fishertown roads access only for loading and unloading. The undispuable fact is that having rubbish bins left on the pavement poses a health and safety hazard. Additionaly I have neighbours with a baby - they will now have two weeks of soiled nappies festering in a bin outside their front door. This WILL encourage pests. I am more than happy to take my recycling to the nominated collection points and will still have to do this anyway as the new bins do not accept glass and plastics. As I said before one size does not always fit all and sometimes a local approach is needed.

Reality said...

@Rob

My comments were made in light of a certain letter in the Nairnshire as mentioned on the Gurn

Apologies for not making that clear