Hillingdon Council to remove all 700 dog waste bins to save £160,000 a year

Hillingdon Council has approved plans to remove all of its roughly 700 dedicated dog waste bins. It expects to save about £160,000 a year.

A council decision notice titled "Rationalisation of Dog Waste Containers" records the decision as agreed on 22 October. It approves the removal of all standalone dog waste bins and moves dog waste disposal into the borough's existing litter bin network.

Dog owners will be asked to put bagged waste in ordinary public litter bins or take it home and put it in their household rubbish.

How the change will work

The plan was set out in a council report dated 14 October. It went to Cllr Wayne Bridges, the Cabinet Member for Residents' Services, for a decision.

The report says many of the dog bins are close to litter bins and that running a separate service duplicates work. Of the £160,000 gross saving, about £60,000 a year would go back into street cleaning, including extra emptying of litter bins. That leaves a net saving of around £100,000 a year.

Stickers saying "I can take dog waste too" could start appearing on selected litter bins in parks and popular dog-walking areas from mid-November. The dedicated dog bins would then be removed in phases from late January. The council says temporary signs and other publicity will tell dog walkers about the change.

About 14.5 tonnes of dog waste is collected in the borough each month, or more than 170 tonnes a year. The council says this can go into the general waste stream. The decision notice shows officers looked at keeping the current network and at removing only some of the bins before choosing full removal.

Cllr Bridges said: "We do understand that some residents have concerns about these changes. We are simply changing how it is collected, making better use of the nearly 1,500 ordinary litter bins already available across Hillingdon."

He also said: "It is important to be clear we are not stopping people from disposing of dog waste or removing the service."

Residents raise concerns

Ruislip Residents' Association has criticised the plan. It says the decision was made without a formal public consultation and was published on the council's Cabinet Member Decisions page, where few residents would see it.

The association says some dog bins already overflow under the current collection service. It also says there is no published list or map of the litter bins dog walkers should use instead, and no plan to add litter bins where a dog bin is currently the only bin nearby.

It has also questioned whether the existing litter bins can take the extra waste. The dog bins are currently emptied under a contract with Charman Environmental Services Ltd, which the association says costs about £160,000 a year.

The council's own report lists an increase in dog fouling as a main risk. It says signs, communications and enforcement can manage that risk, and that the change will be monitored as it is brought in.

In Ickenham, residents have reportedly started a campaign called Bin There, Dung That to take over local dog bins and arrange their own emptying. The Ruislip association has suggested people in Ruislip and Ruislip Manor could try something similar.

What happens next

Stickers are due to go on litter bins before any dog bins are removed, and the phased removal is expected to begin in late January. Hillingdon is not the first council to scrap its dedicated dog waste bins to save money, and several other local authorities already ask owners to use general litter bins.

Residents can contact Hillingdon Council's democratic services team at democratic@hillingdon.gov.uk about the decision. They can report overflowing bins or dog fouling to the council through its website.