We have received an update from Cheshire East regarding the proposed / agreed changes to Litter Bins and Dog Waste bins in the village.  Along with their apology for the delay in completing the work they confirmed that four of the suggested changes have now been completed.

Cheshire East originally agreed to provide four new large covered Litter Bins (Jubilee design) and two new Dog Waste bins plus moving some existing Litter Bins and Dog Waste bins to new locations.  With regards to the re-located Litter bins they have now confirmed that rather than just re-locate these bins they will replace the old bins with four new Jubilee design Litter Bins (making a total of eight new Jubilee style bins to be provided in the village).

Also regarding the large covered bin that 'disappeared' from outside the front of the Library they have agreed to replace that too with a new Jubilee style bin.

We have now met with Cheshire East to discuss how best to deploy the 4 new large size/covered litter bins and 2 new dog waste bins. On those discussions we also asked if would be possible as part of the deployment of these new bins to consider relocating a small number of existing bins as part of the overall role out of the new bins.  We have therefore now submitted to Cheshire East a detail list of suggested locations and movements and this has also been copied to the Parish Council for their information.  

We anticipate hearing from Cheshire East over the next week or so about the placement of the new bins and the suggested relocations.

Cheshire East have advised that funds available for new / replacement bins were now very restricted (presumably a reflection of the economic constraints facing the council).   We have therefore suggested that if there is little or no opportunity at the moment to take forward a proposal to review all litter / dog waste bins in the village that perhaps as a way to a least make some inroads into making improvement, the Council might consider our group identifying a number of 'hot spots' that could be tackled now and which would have featured in to overall proposals anyway.  

Cheshire East responded promptly and positively to this suggestion and agreed to put forward a funding proposal with that suggestion specifically included.  We are now waiting to hear the outcome of that proposal.  

Cheshire East remain very helpful and do wish in the long term to work with the group to resolve the issues we have identified.  For our part the opportunity to at least bring some improvements to the village must be a good thing.

The group has not had the need to meet again since the last update, although we continue to be in email conversation with our point of contact at Cheshire East.  

We are therefore still awaiting feedback from Cheshire East as to progress with the review of street waste facilities, but as pointed out in the last update this process might take some time to be completed. 

Once we have a clear indication of the outcomes of that review we will of course be hoping to move things forward.

A meeting took place with Cheshire East (Streetscape) in early May.  During the meeting all the basics regarding the survey, initial conclusions and a range of questions that we would wish to put to CE about policy, operations, bin design, etc. were covered .

The Working Group and CE have clearly got very similar views about the problems and the potential solutions.  CE is preparing a paper setting out the current situation across the borough in terms of bins, the known and recurring problems, plus proposals for long term solutions to improve facilities on the streets.  This will of course no doubt involve passage through committees for funding etc (since potentially the preferred new covered bin costs more than £250 each)

More meetings are planned to review progress.  The Working Group have therefore decided to put on hold any further development of specific improvement suggestions pending the outcome of CE's review process.  In the mean time they are reviewing the sources of potential grants (possibly using CE as the match funding partner) in case we need to actually raise addition funds to go towards purchasing new bins