A group of local residents, itinerant boaters and long-term mooring holders have started a petition to keep the CRT boater bins at Bathampton, which were closed by CRT a month ago on 11th March with only a week’s notice and no consultation. Please sign the petition here https://www.change.org/p/keep-the-crt-boater-bins-in-bathampton
The boaters and local residents say that:
“There are a number of reasons why service users and local residents are highly concerned with the CRT’s abrupt and final decision, which they were not consulted on:
- The bins in Dundas and in Bath are overburdened already. They will not be able to cope with the surplus waste, and will very quickly become unmanageable for CRT.
- The extra rubbish in Dundas and in Bath will affect the environment and the wildlife in the canals and its surroundings.
- Service users will struggle to find anywhere to throw their waste, which will result in more pollution for the environment. Realistically, some boaters will unfortunately opt to burn their waste, others will fly tip along the canal.
- Many more service users will now have to drive to empty their bins, which will result in more pollution for the environment as well as even more road congestion along Warminster Road.
- People will continue to fly tip at the closed Bathampton facility, the village will become like the Naples of the U.K. due to this uncollected waste.
The problem with the misuse of the bins in Bathampton has been known to CRT for a number of years: local residents and business owners are fly tipping on a daily basis. All local leisure mooring permit holders and countless continuous cruisers have witnessed small vans emptying their waste at night or cars pulling up at all hours of the day to throw bins over the low wall and straight into or on top of the containers. Some of us spend our evenings trying to tidy this up. These are easily accessible since the facilities are constantly left wide open for the world to use.
The solution to the misuse of the bins in Bathampton has also been known to CRT for a number of years, as it has been communicated to them across social media platforms including Facebook and by email from dozens, if not hundreds, of service users:
- The bins need to be fully contained by building a simple roof on the compound and solidifying its structure.
- A proper lock needs to be built into the door, which will only be accessible to BW (British Waterways/CRT) key holders.
These practices are common across the network, but for some reason CRT has chosen not to implement these changes in Bathampton. Instead, they have neglected them and allowed the problems to persist.”
CRT claims that BaNES Council has instructed it to close the bins.
Tags: BANES Council, Bathampton, CRT, flytipping, refuse facilities, rubbish bins