It seems that there is no possibility whatsoever of Wirral Council taking responsibility for bins which are not returned after being emptied. It is ALWAYS your fault and YOU have to pay them £37 for a replacement. It isn't necessarily a new one either.

The system is that the bin men are supposed to report the bin ending up inside the wagon which sometimes happens, and perhaps they do although I suspect they are probably encouraged not to. If they DO report such an event, the council will not charge, but as far as I can make out it happens rather less frequently than blue moons.

There is no appeal of course. If you report the non-return of a bin, you will be told to wait until the next collection when 'nine out of ten times' it turns up. This however is I think nonsense. What happens is that the unfortunate council tax payer 'nine out of ten times' goes and nicks someone else's bin and saves himself £37! The cycle then repeats.

This small-minded policy saves the council a few pounds but generates a great deal of hassle across the borough. They have generated a totally unnecessary form of crime in other words.

I'd be very interested in how many others have suffered this sort of thing. It is the second time for me by the way.

My gripe with bins is that people leave them on the pavements for days after collection, especially on Shrewsbury Road.

I'm surprised Wirral Council don't charge you £37 for being inconvenienced by them!

Perhaps Wirral Council should offer free bin replacements, & then fine anyone who leaves their bin on the pavement after the day of collection. The extra revenue they earn could do away with the brown bin tax.Win win all round.

Excellent suggestion OxtonHill!

Good idea, although they would no doubt have to pay a number of employees about £20,000 each plus vehicles, to go around checking on the bins left out.

My friend has just moved house and found no bins, phoned streetscene and told its £37 for a new bin, Now i have just been checking the Councils domestic bin charging, if you don't get a bin then they fine you under section 45 of the Environment Protection Act, So lets think about this, Council charges you for a bin and for removing your waste, maybe the Council isn't run by a load of morons after all,[ but its a pity Wirral is covered with litter and no one gets fined!]
As for my mate he said they can sing for their Council rates till they give him a bin,
Which i think is fair!

I know they charge for the green one but the grey was free as was the brown. Just thinking when we had ordinary bins, we all had to buy our own but I do not remember them being stolen? How odd?

I'm sure they got this out of us or a european grant. I cant see a council paying for all our bins.


Why is it acceptable for the bin men to put the bins back a house away from where you left it for pick up ? Who decided that's ok? The point I'm getting across is that years ago when bin men came around the back of your house picked up your metal bin they brought it right around the back again. They never went missing !

If we are to report bins missing then isn't it fair to say if they don't put it back where they picked it up from its now there fault and not ours.

Personally I think there should be a department to look into these claims properly and not as its been suggested its our fault ! People work, people dont get home until all hours and if the bin men have not returned it in a tidy manner its going to get moved by Jo public and then away by the kids.

When i put my bin out i put it towards the wall with the handle accessible easily for the bin men. They leave mine in the middle of the pavement and no where near where i left it.

There are rules for !
Dogs crapping on pavements.
Cars parked on pavements.
Bins left out longer than necessary on pavements.
Is there a law the bin men must abide by or is it best effort ?
If its going to cost me £37 to replace a bin, it should be more than best effort.

I would love to find a loop hole if this happened to me.
I would paint my old brown bin green in principle of not paying £37 its the same shape, I could claim colour blindness.

My thoughts

I watched the binmen the other week. It's an individual thing, some of them are very good at finding the same spot where they picked it up while others not only cannot remember the place,but often the side of the road it came from. I would suggest tying a long length of cord from the bin to the door knocker. The binmen can follow this back to your house.

To be honest, it's a problem everywhere. I am tired of chasing up or down the road for my bin, whatever colour it is.
They don't care, and the only way to make them care is to complain to the council.
If it happens every week, then complain every week. Streetscene (0151 606 2004) will soon get fed up answering the calls about the same problem.
I am just waiting for the brown bins to start walking. If that happens, I hope we get a refund on the annual fee we pay.
Does anyone know if the council have collected the copious amounts of unwanted bins yet?

i'm going to video our binmen next time they come around, the attitude of a couple of them absolutely stinks, I have a son who has aspergers he placed a bag in the bin as they came around and one of the lovely individuals told him as it had been next to the bin he couldn't accept it. my son went to throw it in the bin wagon himself and was told he couldn't ******* do that and to **** off with the bag. very nice man. last week he was seen taking a bin bag out of the top of the bin and throwing it back up our drive. what a horrible little rat of a person. I wonder if I hold back 20% of my council tax the complaints department might pay attention. I doubt it though.

I did a gardening job for someone the other day and they hadnt paid for their brown bin and it was full of a years rotten grass etc stinking to high heaven. The binmen were out collecting so i just dragged it out to the pavement, no sticker on it and dutifully they emptied it without thinking. Nice one.

When I moved into my house last year,there was a load of bins green,brown & grey all full of stinky rubbish.Got onto the council nothing so went to my councillor bins got removed & I got second hand bins.They asked did I want a brown bin but I knew the charge was comming in so I said no to the brown bin.