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DUSTBINS.
Section 75 of the Public Health Act, 1936, provides that
a local authority who have undertaken the removal of house
refuse may by notice require the owner or occupier of any
building to provide such number of covered dustbins for the
reception of house refuse as the authority may approve.
Any person aggrieved by a requirement of the local
authority to provide a dustbin may appeal to a Court of
Summary Jurisdiction.
Failure to comply with a notice renders the person in
default liable to a fine, and the authority may provide the
bin and recover the cost thereof.
The ambiguous wording of this section has led to a number
of appeal cases in the Courts in various parts of the country,
but the decisions given have failed to clarify the position.
It is obvious that each case must be decided on its merits, and
whichever party the Council decides should be held responsible
for providing a dustbin has the right of appeal againdt the
decision.
One such case came before the local Bench during this year,
and the Magistrates reversed the Council's decision that the
occupier should provide the dustbin.
Having regard to the difficulties involved in fixing this
liability, the Council directed the Borough Treasurer and myself
to submit a report on the financial aspect of the operation of
Section 75 (3) of the Act which enables a local author ity, sub ject
to certain conditions, to themselves provide dustbins, making an
annual charge not exceeding 2/6d.
The Treasurer and I produced figures which illustrated that
over a period of twenty years a scheme of this sort would not
be self-supporting and that the losses in the earlier stages
would be considerable.
Furthermore, and perhaps of greater importance, were the
foreseeable difficulties in the administration of the scheme,
particularly the collection of the annual charges.
We therefore felt that we could not advise the Council to
undertake the provision of dustbins under the terms of the
section at that time, and the Council concurred.
I myself felt,however, that there was an alternative which
was worthy of consideration. I was of opinion that the frequent
disputes which were arising over dustbins were substantially due
to the high cost thereof, and I therefore urged the Council to
agree to sell dustbins to owners and occupiers on request at cost
price plus 15% to cover establishment and delivery charges.
would not appear to be a revolutionary procedure bearing In mirfd
that the Council had to provide bins where the persons on whom
notices were served made default and recover the cost thereof from
those persons.
Again the Council concurred, and towards the end of the year
this procedure was set in motion. Two types of dustbin are held
in stock and sold when required at 17/2 and 23/3 inclusive.
It is too early yet to comment upon the success of the scheme,
but already there are favourable indications.
23.