Public bins to double in size under new £500,000 scheme in Greater Manchester

More than half a million pounds is to be spent replacing old street litter bins in Oldham with new versions double the size.

There are around 1,170 public street bins in the borough spread across district centres, main roads, and housing estates.

This doesn’t include bins located in parks, cemeteries and countryside areas.

Chiefs say that the existing street bins are ‘coming to the end of their working life’ and are in need of ‘urgent replacement’.

Cabinet members have now agreed to grant a contract to replace 928 street bins at a cost of around £531,000 from the capital programme.

Council leader Arooj Shah said the issue was ‘really important’.

“We know how much this means to members of the public,” she added.

Cabinet member for neighbourhoods, Coun Amanda Chadderton told the meeting that the new bins would be larger and have a different style.

She added that cleaner streets was a crucial issue for residents in the borough.

“We know how much importance they place on bins, be it street bins, more residents more important are recycling bins,” Coun Chadderton said.

“This report is following agreement by cabinet last year to go out to tender for the replacement of all our street bins which have now come to the end of their natural life.

“We are proposing that these street bins double in size and they’re going to look quite significantly different to how the street bins look at the moment.

“In terms of where they will be placed, all ward members have been consulted with about where these bins will be placed.”

The council launched a street cleaning initiative, ‘Don’t Trash Oldham’, in September last year, which aimed to deep clean every district in the borough.

The project saw an extra £1.27m invested in making streets cleaner, on top of what the council already spends on cleaning up fly-tipping, waste and litter.

And since its launch more than 230 fines have been given out to people for environmental crimes.