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Tewkesbury Civic SocietyProtecting Tewkesbury's Architectural Heritage and ensuring today's developments add positively to it.
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Issues
Bin blight and other environmental problems
The Society is always concerned about things that spoil the environment within the Conservation Area. Such things could be smells, noise or visual pollution.
Visual pollution examples might be such things as a proliferation of inappropriate street signs or accumulated litter, there are many possibilities.
As a Society we watch out for such things and when we detect any, we try to get them fixed. Some are easier fixed than others.
A real problem arises when environmental damage is done by an Authority as an unintended and unforeseen consequence of what appears on first sight to be a perfectly acceptable policy implementation!
Such has been the case with the introduction by TBC of its Waste and Recycling wheelie bins some years ago.
Conservation Areas like ours, centred upon a historic town centre of tightly compacted properties many with limited access demand special consideration. A solution that may work across a large part of the Borough does not fit a lot of a Conservation Area like ours!
In fact, little thought was given to these special needs. Bins were handed out without any condition that they MUST be stored on the property. Nor were alternative storage/collection facilities made available and insisted upon where that condition could genuinely not be met.
The result can be seen in our Conservation Area pavements today, bin after bin blighting them.
Visual pollution examples might be such things as a proliferation of inappropriate street signs or accumulated litter, there are many possibilities.
As a Society we watch out for such things and when we detect any, we try to get them fixed. Some are easier fixed than others.
A real problem arises when environmental damage is done by an Authority as an unintended and unforeseen consequence of what appears on first sight to be a perfectly acceptable policy implementation!
Such has been the case with the introduction by TBC of its Waste and Recycling wheelie bins some years ago.
Conservation Areas like ours, centred upon a historic town centre of tightly compacted properties many with limited access demand special consideration. A solution that may work across a large part of the Borough does not fit a lot of a Conservation Area like ours!
In fact, little thought was given to these special needs. Bins were handed out without any condition that they MUST be stored on the property. Nor were alternative storage/collection facilities made available and insisted upon where that condition could genuinely not be met.
The result can be seen in our Conservation Area pavements today, bin after bin blighting them.
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The consequences are not just a degrading of the environment for those residents living there but also a lowered desire by others to live or visit there or close by. This then has an effect on property prices and overall visitor derived revenue in the wider town!
There are some genuine cases where there is no place within a property for wheelie bins and in those cases an alternative to such bins must be found and can be if TBC has the will.
In other situations it is residents’ unwillingness to co-operate that is the issue, few by contrast to the great number that do co-operate but enough to spoil our common environment. Some residents, seeing that neighbours are not co-operating, perhaps think they too might as well not bother so the malaise is infectious and the blight spreads, unless stopped. In these situations the dedicated efforts of just one individual can make the difference. Such was the case where one person in St. Mary’s Lane, with a little help from TBC and TCS, ignited local civic pride and bins got removed from pavements back onto properties. The street now looks great!
This approach should be the first tried but where it does not work the final say is again with TBC, they can, as Cheltenham does, ultimately ensure co-operation by confiscation, or simply threaten it!
The Society recognised this wheelie bin blight issue back in 2015 and started lobbying TBC to belatedly address IT. We were not alone in recognising the problem posed by blind use of wheelie bins, even the then Secretary of State, drew attention to it and directed Authorities to address the matter. Many Authorities have consequently implemented policies and procedures to combat such blighting, Cheltenham being one such.
There are some genuine cases where there is no place within a property for wheelie bins and in those cases an alternative to such bins must be found and can be if TBC has the will.
In other situations it is residents’ unwillingness to co-operate that is the issue, few by contrast to the great number that do co-operate but enough to spoil our common environment. Some residents, seeing that neighbours are not co-operating, perhaps think they too might as well not bother so the malaise is infectious and the blight spreads, unless stopped. In these situations the dedicated efforts of just one individual can make the difference. Such was the case where one person in St. Mary’s Lane, with a little help from TBC and TCS, ignited local civic pride and bins got removed from pavements back onto properties. The street now looks great!
This approach should be the first tried but where it does not work the final say is again with TBC, they can, as Cheltenham does, ultimately ensure co-operation by confiscation, or simply threaten it!
The Society recognised this wheelie bin blight issue back in 2015 and started lobbying TBC to belatedly address IT. We were not alone in recognising the problem posed by blind use of wheelie bins, even the then Secretary of State, drew attention to it and directed Authorities to address the matter. Many Authorities have consequently implemented policies and procedures to combat such blighting, Cheltenham being one such.
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You can access a presentation here that summarises the issue; why, where, who and what might be done etc. We have given this presentation or a variant to TBC, TTC and Rotary.
As a result of such lobbying and/or such things as Press reports and interviews, TTC, Rotary, Abbey Lawn Trust, Tewkesbury in Bloom and a host of individuals have expressed their support for our Society project to rid Tewkesbury’s Conservation Area of Bin Blight. |
Several meetings have been held with TBC to progress the issue. Core attendees included Councillors with the Conservation Area as part of their Ward, the senior Officer responsible, the Waste Portfolio holder and the Society. The last occurred in early 2020 and proved quite constructive, however, some of the agreed actions had to be suspended due to the Pandemic. Now we are getting back to some sort of normal these actions will all resume, hopefully.
Despite the contradictions evident in having a Waste Policy that allowed our streets to look so messy and Policies promoting Tewkesbury’s visual attractions as a Tourist destination, there was initially a reluctance by TBC to acknowledge the problem. However, over time this has changed to recognition and acceptance that if existing policies and procedures fail to resolve the issue stronger measures may be justified. The Deputy CEO did recognise that TBC have unintentionally created the problem and promised to help resolve it. However, he has left TBC and is not replaced? We hope and expect that his promise will still be honoured. Time will tell.
Despite the contradictions evident in having a Waste Policy that allowed our streets to look so messy and Policies promoting Tewkesbury’s visual attractions as a Tourist destination, there was initially a reluctance by TBC to acknowledge the problem. However, over time this has changed to recognition and acceptance that if existing policies and procedures fail to resolve the issue stronger measures may be justified. The Deputy CEO did recognise that TBC have unintentionally created the problem and promised to help resolve it. However, he has left TBC and is not replaced? We hope and expect that his promise will still be honoured. Time will tell.
JOINT ACTION
This Society is not alone in deploring the bin blighting of our communities, all the Gloucestershire Civic Societies have joined in so deploring. As a group we sent a joint letter to our respective Authorities asking that they give higher priority to resolving the issue.
"CLEAN UP OUR ACT" EXHIBITION
As part of a general effort to clean-up in town the Society was intending to co-organise an Exhibition in the Town Hall with TTC and the Museum. TBC had agreed to participate also. The event was intending to focus on areas such as weeding, litter, fag-ends, dog-poo, recycling and of course wheelie bin blight etc. The pandemic stopped this happening in 2020 but we hope to resurrect the plan in the near future.
