Sheffield estate where bin chutes are too small told 'use smaller bin bags or face £400 fly tipping fines'

Residents on a Sheffield estate where bin bags are piling up because they can’t access their wheelie bins have now been threatened with flytipping fines of up to £400.

In March, The Star reported on how mounds of household waste are being dumped each day on every floor of the Lansdowne Estate flats off Cemetery Road.

Sheffield City Council locked the estate’s wheelie bins away in December 2023 and asked residents to only use the bin chutes in a bid to curb littering and a rampant rat infestation.

But, as residents are discovering, the bin chutes are too small for modern purposes and get blocked by full standard size bin bags.

And because the wheelie bins are shut away, homeowners have had no choice but to dump their bags in communal areas.

Now, the council, which says it is spending “80 per cent of our time” removing waste, has sent a letter to all residents warning that they are taking action - by threatening fines of up to £400.

“Did you know that flytipping is the illegal disposal of household, industrial, commercial or other controlled waste?” opens the letter sent on March 24, accompanied with an illustrative photo of bin bags piled up around one of the estate’s chutes.

The letter - which has multiple typos and spelling errors - invokes residents’ own tenancy agreements and firmly states that residents should start using smaller bin bags that fit the bin chutes.

It reads: “rWe [sic.] have seen an increase of fly tipping on some of the estates across the city.

“We will be taking a more proactive approach which will see an increase in the charges for removal of waste that is disposed of incorrectly.

“We will charge you the cost of removing any rubbish which you dispose of incorrectly.

“If it is determined that there you have [sic.] committed flytipping of waste, the fine has been anything [sic.] from £80 to £400 and can lead to a criminal record.”

Nora Legister, aged 93, who lives in a ground floor flat and used to carry her bin bags to the wheelie bins herself, says she is now unable to use the stairs to instead use the chute.

“I just have to wait for my daughter to visit and ask her to do it,” said Nora.

“I think there should still be a wheelie bin outside.

“It is better in some ways - there were a lot of rats last summer and they seem to have got rid of them. But it is always quite messy across the estate.”

The letter from the council asks residents with disabilities or difficulty using the chutes to contact their neighbourhood officers.

Noticeably, several bin chutes around the estate have been vandalised in recent weeks. The hatches that mean only smaller bin bags can be thrown in have been unscrewed and torn off in several blocks.

One resident, a mother for a large family, said using smaller bin bags has meant making trips to the bin chutes “three, four times a day,” and called on the council to widen the chutes or make the wheelie bins accessible again.

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Another resident was walking her dog when she spoke to The Star, and had to stop her puppy eating littered food several times while she talked.

She said: “I know there is rubbish piling up but what are people expected to do?

“Years ago when we used the chutes we never had this problem because there just wasn’t as much waste.”

Meanwhile, the estate’s glass, metal and plastic recycling bins were removed for “deep cleaning” in December and have not been seen since. The council was approached for comment on when they will be returned.

Speaking in March, all three ward councillors for the Lansdowne Estate said they felt the bin chutes alone were not the solution, with councillor Nighat Basharat (Lab) saying residents "felt not listened to and fed up of reporting problems".

Councillor Maroof Raouf (Green) told The Star: "The bin chutes aren't big enough for modern household waste, I think that's pretty clear. Residents are leaving rubbish by the chutes and it's a massive fire safety risk.

"You can't knock the building down and build bigger bin chutes, I understand that. But I think new bin chutes built going over the balconies and into the bins would alleviate a lot of the problems, those are the kind of solutions the council should look at.

"Unfortunately, the time scales we have been given to see any changes are ambiguous, and my real concern is that they will never be met."

Ward councillor Ibby Ullah (Labour and Co-Operative) agreed, saying: "While I fully understand and appreciate the intention behind reintroducing the old chute system, particularly in light of the vermin issue in the estate, the feedback I have received from residents thus far has not been entirely positive. Many residents believe that the old chutes are not the solution.

"I have requested the housing department to evaluate the success of this measure and perhaps explore alternative methods for waste disposal."