Wirral News readers have their say in the great wheelie bin maggots debate

Sep 30 2009 by Carrie Catterall, Heswall News

There was a tremendous response to Wirral News’ story about bin maggots and bin collections. Here we print some viewpoints

ARE maggots a health hazard?

Last week in the News Wirral Council defended its decision to start collecting household waste fortnightly instead of weekly after some residents said their bins had become a breeding ground for maggots.

When Kathy Musker, of Greasby, contacted her local councillor to complain about her problem with maggots, she was told she was the only person out of the 6,600 people in her ward to complain about this issue this year.

Councillor Jean Quinn, cabinet member for Streetscene and transport services, said maggots can be avoided and even if people get them in their bins they are not a “health hazard”.

Dave Green, director of Wirral Council’s technical services added: “Our decision to start alternate weekly collections was not taken lightly and has saved the council (and the taxpayer) approximately £4.8m since it was introduced two years ago.”

A poll run at www.wirralnews.co.uk has this week revealed that 53.3% of thise who voted are concerned that their green bin only gets emptied once a fortnight.

The issue also provoked a strong reaction from our readers who have written to us with their views regarding bin collections.

l I HAVE read your article Council: Maggots are no health risk, and am delighted to see something positive written in the paper about the fortnightly bin collections.

I was so pleased when the council made the decision to give us the grey bin for recycling, it is an excellent scheme, one which has highlighted just how much we were wasting before.

I'm utterly fed up of reading letters in the News week after week from disgruntled residents moaning about maggots. For goodness sake, with all the horror going on in the world, is this really such a problem?

EMMA SAYLE

via e-mail

l THE wheelie bins are lined up in the entry at the back of my house for collection each week and in all the time that the collections have been fortnightly, I haven't noticed maggots on any of them.

We used to have a problem with owners collecting their bins after emptying but that problem seems to have cleared up.

WENDY WATERS

Hoylake

l WHEN the council introduced fortnightly wheelie bin collections, I spotted a business opportunity selling maggots to anglers.

Since then, and despite having several children, two cats and two rabbits (with all the associated waste) my wheelie bin has failed to produce even a single maggot.

What's going on? Sort it out, Wirral Council!

SEAN ROSTRON

New Brighton

l AS someone who has had to put up with this and the appalling smell I can confirm that councillor Quinn is talking nonsense. Maggots are the larvae of bluebottles and flies which carry disease. When they land on food they contaminate it with bacteria including salmonella which can cause food poisoning.

So if a big breeding ground for flies is created, the potential for spreading disease is greatly increased.

Kathy Musker is not alone in her complaint; just ask anyone who had to put out their green bin in the warm weather.

It's just that talking to Wirral Council won't change anything, and is just like talking to the floor.

If £4.8million has been saved why have we not had the benefit of council tax reductions?

COLIN NUGENT

l I AM afraid that Cllr Jean Quinn reveals her ignorance by asserting that “maggots are not a health hazard”.

Has she forgotten that maggots are the larval stage of flies? Within a few days all those tiny, white, wriggling maggots will become big green/blue bottles being very active flying about, feeding on unmentionable rubbish, and then free to land on our food before we eat it.

The fact that maggots are associated with dirt and poor hygiene is probably the reason she has received a “small number of complaints”.

Most people that I know would much prefer a weekly collection of our green bins.

ROSEMARY WADDINGTON

Oxton

l HOW can Cllr Jean Quinn have the audacity to say there have only been a small number of complaints about the fortnightly bin collections? Has she not seen the floods of complaints that have been posted in to the News each week for the past two years?

If she is so out of touch with what's going on in our borough then she's in the wrong job.

So a note to Wirral Council – I do need my bin emptying once a week thank you and as a council tax payer, I demand it.

MRS K MADDOX

Thingwall