The Chamberlain News

Old Joe’s Almanac: Wheelie Bins

It’s been a rubbish year. But that’s a good thing if you are a wheelie bin.

The first half of 2013 saw the most ludicrous scare campaign imaginable hatched by Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors against Birmingham council’s decision to switch rubbish collection from dirty old black plastic sacks to new, smart wheelie bins.

These bins were the spawn of the Devil, it was claimed. Old people wouldn’t be able to put them out. They’d be stolen. They would look unsightly at the front of houses. Burglars might hide in them (sorry, made that one up, but you never know).

Actually the roll out of wheelie bins proceeded almost without a hitch, which probably surprised Labour councillors as much as anyone else. Most of Birmingham will have wheelie bins by the end of 2014. Some Tory councillors are beginning to wonder whether the over-hyped onslaught against bins, led by mother and son team Deirdre and Robert Alden, was really such a good idea.