Homeowners’ bin snatch fury

Homeowners on Windsor Avenue found letters put through their door on Thursday saying ‘your property has more wheeled bins thanallocated by Lancaster City Council, due to this we have removed your additional bins.’’

Michael Gardner, of Windsor Avenue, said: “Do they want to take my bike as well? This is the second time this happened, they took a wheelie bin three or four years ago and we got another one.

“We have two teenagers and we fill two bins and two recycling bins every week.

“They can’t just take one of our bins!

“They nicked it from outside my house. I’m not happy.”

Another resident, who also had her bin ‘snatched’, said: “We are a family of four and we have two indoor cats as well, so we tend to fill two wheelie bins easily. On Thursday I went out to the woman posting letters and said ‘what are you doing? and she said we are only allowed one bin, not two.

“The bins were loaded onto the back of a van piled up with wheelie bins. We’ll just have to manage.”

A spokesman for Lancaster City Council said: “As part of the council’s commitment to reduce household waste sent to landfill each year and to encourage people to recycle more, each property is entitled to one grey bin for non-recyclable waste in addition to a number of boxes for recyclables.

“Additional grey bins are only provided to large families who reside at a property, following a waste audit or subject to a specific criteria and occupants who have medical conditions which generate extra non-recyclable waste.

“Additional bins which have not been officially applied for are periodically recovered by the council.

“The containers belong to Lancaster City Council and once recovered they are put back into storage until needed legitimately by another householder.

“On this occasion, 19 unauthorised bins were recovered.”