Letters: ‘Little else adds to urban blight in the New Forest like wheely-bins’

You report (A&T 24th Jan) that NFDC will introduce wheely-bins this year for fortnightly collection and a five-litre and a 25-litre food-waste caddy (swill buckets in Second World War parlance) per dwelling for weekly collections.

I don’t need swill buckets. I have a food-waste disposer. I also rinse cans, bottles, jars, etc. My food waste conveniently and hygienically becomes sewage-sludge and eventually topsoil. Do I qualify for a rates-rebate?

Climate change is eroding topsoil. Burying it in landfill is perverse. Eliminating rotting urban waste and attendant vermin is another worthwhile ambition. Will thousands of outdoor swill buckets awaiting emptying be vermin-proof?

Local authorities could award grants toward food-waste disposers. Building regulations could require them in new dwellings. The cost of a satisfactory appliance, spread over its service life-expectancy, added to that of electricity and metered water is less than that of servicing a swill bucket weekly.

Meanwhile, I don’t share Councillor Blunden’s view that this change is exciting. Little else adds to urban blight like wheely-bins, particularly with dwelling numbers daubed on them. A topic for a reader’s picture maybe!

H Fletcher

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