New Forest Association says NFDC is violating byelaw over animals eating from new bins
THE district council should be fined for violating the byelaw banning the feeding of Forest livestock, a Forest group has said, and the government has been urged to intervene as problems with the area’s new waste system continue.
At a Verderers’ Court meeting on Wednesday Sarah Neild, chair of the New Forest Association, slammed the “contradictory and unacceptable attitude” of New Forest District Council following the rollout of its new £5.6m waste and recycling regime which requires residents to leave food waste caddies outside the boundaries of their properties.
Also speaking for the NFA, Brian Tarnoff suggested residents “tally up” every infraction per animal, per bin day collection, before charging NFDC with violating the byelaw which bans feeding of livestock.
As reported, weekly collections of general waste and recycling in sacks have been scrapped in favour of fortnightly wheelie bin collections of general waste and recycling. The council is also issuing each home with a brown outdoor caddy and a smaller grey indoor caddy for food waste, which are collected weekly.
However, within a first week of the roll-out – for those in New Milton, Lymington and Brockenhurst – a raft of residents reported donkeys breaking into food waste caddies and general waste bins.
Ms Neild said: ”I really don’t need to tell the court or members of the public here today and the dangers to stock posed by food waste bins.”
Along with the verderers and the Commoners Defence Association, the NFA was urging NFDC to rethink its advice on waste collections and return to the policy of requiring residents to keep all waste within the boundaries of properties.
She said: “In the past, NFDC as part of the Shared New Forest Project agreed with the verderers and the CDA that waste bags should be placed inside the gate or cattle grid of New Forest properties.”
Stating that a change in the “reciptical” for waste was absolutely no reason to change this sensible guidance, Ms Neild also said the “so called” locks on the food waste bins had proved ‘totally inadequate”.
She continued: “As a resident of Brockenhurst I find the NFDC guidance totally inconsistent. The website says one thing and leaflets distributed to residents says another. The latter says bins should be placed at your property boundary – that could be within your gate.”
“However, online guidance says it should be beyond the gate – inconsistency is also evident in NFDC’s PSPO against feeding stock, and their own actions which do just that!”
As a Brockenhurst resident she had witnessed first hand the “carnage” on Sway Road and in East End as animals feasted on food waste, and Ms Neild challenged NFDC’s previous claims that “only a few problems had been reported”.
She concluded: “One incident is one too many given the risk to stock and the public that can be so easily avoided – therefore we ask the verderers to continue to send a clear message that food waste bins must be inside the gates so NDFC gets the message loud and clear!”
Further concerns were raised by the Commoners Defences Association which stated that problems with stock breaking into bins would significantly worsen when pigs are turned out onto the Forest for pannage in mid-September.
Reminding the meeting that following introduction of the animal by-product order in 1999, it was illegal to feed kitchen waste to pigs, CDA chair Andrew Parry-Norton said: “We now have a problem that needs a very fast solution; soon pannage season will start and pigs will be even quicker in opening the bins than the donkeys.
“Urgent discussions need to take placeinvolving all interested parties, maybe suspending the separation of waste food from general waste until the problem is solved.”
The court also heard that the CDA was ‘seeking clarification’ about who had potentially broken the law – the householder who had put the bin out with the knowledge that pigs could break into it – or NFDC for supplying the bins and advising residents that they were “stock proof”.
Meanwhile, a Bransgore resident is urging the government to intervene .
Paul Heydon told the A&T how he, together with neighbours, had endured five consecutive weeks without scheduled black bag and recycling waste collections, as the area is not set to move to wheelie bins until phase two in October.
He has now written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner – also Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government – for answers.
He said: “Collections have completely stopped unless we call – and even then, we never know when they will come. Why isn’t NFDC simply fixing the problem? They claim to be ‘doing their best’, but their best is absolutely terrible. It’s clear they’re trying to save money by cutting services, yet their team has no clue how to resolve this, as residents face yet another missed collection this week.”
There has been “zero proactive communication from NFDC about missed lifts or recovery plans”, he said, and time was being wasted every week to chase missed collections.
He added: “Despite an unring-fenced £5.555 million Settlement Funding Assessment [SFA] for 2024/25 – intended expressly to support core services including refuse collection – residents have endured five consecutive weeks without their scheduled collections.
“This failure is not isolated to Bransgore – similar breakdowns have been reported across the district. Cllr Geoffrey Blunden’s open letter admits there are “some issues” with the rollout, yet he downplays the extent of the service breakdown.
“When [we] call to complain, operatives insist no-one else is reporting issues, despite knowing our neighbours have already lodged calls. This misrepresentation is unacceptable.”
He is urging the government to investigate why NFDC failed to adhere to its own waste collection timetable and why the SFA has not ensured consistent operations.
He also wants it to direct the council to implement contingency measures, “so no household across the district must chase collections each week”, and hold NFDC to account for “both for the operational failings and for misleading frontline staff who deny the scale of complaints”.
Meanwhile a Pilley resident said that when she called the district council to complain about missed collections, an employee had told her “the binmen have been very disruptive, not co-operative, and caused NFDC problems, [which were] possibly union related” – which the council strongly refuted.
Richard Voizey snapped a picture of donkeys feasting on the food waste, which included the bin liners, near his home, despite the bin being “clearly locked”. He told the A&T on Tuesday he was still waiting for Friday’s food waste bin collection.
“You could see this happening a mile away – the donkeys are quite intelligent and they were bound to work it out.”
Sway resident Mark Timbrell got in touch with the A&T to share images of a herd of donkeys in “a feeding frenzy” around some bins. He said: “I had to physically pull a green waste bag out of a baby donkeys mouth – it had approximately two thirds of the bag in its mouth and would have choked.
“I then cleared up all the waste and put the bins behind a gate. This will happen time and time again, its dangerous.
“I reported the incident to Forestry England who also believe this is now a danger to livestock.”
Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for NFDC said: “The waste collection service is undergoing a major transformation, including new vehicles and different waste containers, plus the re-routed collection rounds so that they become more operationally efficient. These changes are all to bring the service up to date with modern practices, so that the recycling rate for the area can increase.
“We do not recognise the comments being made by the resident about our amazingly hard-working waste crews. We have a positive working relationship with our staff and our unions, and we rebut the alleged statement – that has been provided with no evidence or details – most strongly. We’re very grateful to our staff for their hard work since launching our new waste collection service.”
The council confirmed it had recruited 20 additional members of staff to help with the new food waste collection service.
The spokesperson added: “Missed collections of new containers reported by residents in the phase one area account for less than 1% of the total collections scheduled.
“Thank you to residents in the first phase for their participation in the new system, now still only five weeks in, and continued patience and support towards our staff during this period of major change. These changes are a big step forward in how we manage waste across the New Forest and are helping us build a more efficient and environmentally responsible service for the long term.”
The council says it “recognises” that some residents not yet part of the rollout have been impacted by missed collections: “If you're in phases two or three, you may still be on the existing collection system for now, but we recognise that you may still be affected. If there are occasional changes or disruptions to your service while we support the rollout in phase 1. These occasions are minimal.
“Your patience is appreciated, and we're committed to keeping you informed as we move closer to introducing the new service in your area.”
Missed collections can be raised online at www.newforest.gov.uk/MissedCollections