Dog walker calls out West Berkshire Council for ‘disgusting’ overflowing bins

Dog walkers in Thatcham are having problems with overflowing bins resulting in bags of pet waste piling up on pavements.

West Berkshire Council has admitted it has been experiencing issues with contractor staff retention which has led to a slower service.

“It stinks to the high heavens” said one resident who photographed multiple overflowing bins on The Moors on Monday (August 8).

The dog walker, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Newbury Weekly News: “We have got a lot of dogs around here, the majority of [owners] pick the waste up.

“But there are bins that are full up, this problem is quite regular.”

She added: “We are trying to do the right thing by keeping the place tidy and using the bins but now people have had to put their own bags and boxes there for others to use,

“It is awful. We pay all this money for the council to do these things.”

Deputy leader of Thatcham Town Council David Lister (Lib Dem, Thatcham West) has raised this issue before after reporting the problem on the district council’s online ‘report a dog bin’ facility.

He said: “It started around January, after Christmas, and was bad for a month.

“In February it improved but more recently it is falling again. It is absolutely appalling.”

Mr Lister has offered a digital solution to the problem which he thinks may make it easier to report the issue.

“It would be great to have a bar code on the bin so people can scan it to report a problem,” he said.

“It would make it so much easier.”

West Berkshire Council has acknowledged the problem and said: “The increase in dog ownership since lockdown has generated greater usage of bins.

“This, coupled with contractor staff retention and recruitment issues within the industry, means that sometimes, the bins are not emptied as quickly as we’d like.

“We’re working hard to make sure that they are cleared as quickly as possible and have created additional capacity by adding a new contractor to cover some of the busiest areas.

“However, we hope that everyone will help to ease the situation by taking their dog waste home if the bin is full, reporting it to us and we’ll empty it within one working day.”