FLINTSHIRE residents have shared mixed feelings on black bin collections going to three-weekly.
Flintshire Council has confirmed that changes from weekly collections of black blins to three-weekly collections will go-ahead, despite opposition from some councillors who tried to stop the change by calling in an emergency scrutiny committee meeting earlier this week.
More than 3,300 people signed a petition against the decision taken by members of the local authority's Labour-led cabinet earlier this month.
This week, The Leader took to the streets of Mold to get people's views on the controversial change.
People's views were generally mixed on the matter, with some slamming the council, others praising the decision and some ambivalent to it.
Mary Bowers, who's lived in Mold for the last few years having moved to the UK from Zimbabwe, said: "I live in a block of flats, and I'm dreading seeing the black bins piling up over a three-week period. I think there will be rats and all sorts running around.
"I lived in a developing nation, but we still had our bins collected every week. Now I'm living in a first world country and having them collected once every three weeks."
Wendy Bryan, from Sychdyn, said: "If there's going to be food in the bins, which there will be as you can't dispose of all of it in the food waste bin, and they're left over three weeks - I'm worried they're going to be crawling with maggots and other pests. I'm dreading what the smell will be like.
"The household recycling centres are only open a couple of days a week now, and now this. I think there will be loads of fly-tipping."
Claire Gordon, who has three children, said: "With me having three kids, we produce a lot of waste. I think the bins could be overflowing, but then if the lid isn't shut properly you get fined. It makes you wonder why you bother paying Council Tax. The tax goes up but the level of services go down.
"I'm not impressed with them (Flintshire Council) at all."
Megan Cordelle said: "I agree with the council's decision, in fact I think it should have been four-weekly. People throw far too much away and people really need to learn how to recycle properly.
"I think people need better education on what you can and can't recycle."
Emma Chisholm, who lives with her two children, Penny and Bonny Watson, said: "Thankfully it won't affect me much. I can see why people with larger households would be worried.
"We'd barely fill our black bin over three weeks, so at the moment if I miss a collection it's not the end of the world. This might change when it's three weekly as waiting for six weeks to get it collected is a long time."
Other people described the decision as "crazy" and bemoaned a lack of consultation with residents.
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Flintshire Council leader Ian Roberts has resigned in the wake of the backlash regarding the bin collections.
Addressing the public response at Wednesday's scrutiny meeting, Cllr Roberts said: “Some of the language that’s been used in this debate concerns me very greatly and the social media storm that’s arisen because of this concerns me as well.
“Some councillors have been verbally abused in the street and on social media and are now not comfortable going out within their own communities. This is totally unacceptable."
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