New Forest District Council set for delivery of 160,000 wheelie bins ahead of phase one rollout in New Milton and Lymington
AROUND 160,000 new wheelie bins will arrive in New Milton as the district council prepares to begin rolling out its controversial new waste programme.
As reported in the A&T, the council is axing weekly collections of general waste and recycling in sacks, with properties in phase one – including New Milton and Lymington – receiving their new bins between 14th April and 6th June.
Many have hailed their introduction as a solution to animals ripping sacks apart and making a mess of the roads, but critics say they are ugly additions to the street, cumbersome for older residents to handle and unsuitable for rural areas.
The new bins are being delivered to a temporary storage site in the town over the next month, ahead of distribution to households. The A&T was invited to the site to see the progress of the operation, with 8,000 delivered so far.
Speaking from the site, the council’s cabinet member for environment and sustainability, Cllr Geoffrey Blunden, told the A&T the deliveries were an “exciting step” towards the rollout. “Residents are really looking forward to this – there are a few who don’t like change – but mostly the feedback I am getting is that the new bins will be really welcomed.”
He said New Milton and Barton were “seagull hotspots” that saw bin bags regularly ripped open, and this would be eliminated by the introduction of wheelie bins. He was confident residents would adapt to the new system and put aside concerns they were “unsightly”.
“We are one of the last authorities to move over to wheelie bins, so we have used all that knowledge from others to pick the best method of working, which is a clear advantage.”
Residents will be provided with two bins: a black lidded 180-litre bin for general waste, and a green lidded 240-litre one for recyclable items, collected on alternate weeks.
The council will also issue each home with a brown outdoor caddy and a smaller grey indoor caddy for food waste, which will be collected weekly. These are set to be stored at a facility in Totton ahead of delivery.
An initial roll of bin liner caddies will also be provided.
Residents whose properties are deemed unsuitable for wheelie bins will be written to. They will still receive two lots of recycling sacks from the council per year, but will need to buy their own black sacks for waste.
NFDC has employed four new waste advisors to help residents with questions and advice over the changes, according to the council’s assistant director of place operations, Chris Noble.
Asked how compliance would be monitored, he said: “We have a legal duty to collect household waste and we are able to specify how residents present that waste.
“The first port of call for anyone with issues will be that we try to resolve it with education. We will always try to work with residents – enforcement would be a last resort.”
Residents living in phase two, which covers the west and north-west of the Forest and includes Ringwood, Fordingbridge, Burley, and surrounding areas, will receive their bins between 25th August and 13th October, while phase three, the east and north-east of the Forest, including Totton, Hythe, and Marchwood, will have deliveries between 19th January and 9th March 2026.
The council says ahead of the transition residents will be told when to expect their bins, with information sent out alongside the new council tax bills.
