Council could solve issue of noisy bin lorries by taking inspiration from Manhattan

By Owen Sheppard, local democracy reporter

The problem of numerous noisy rubbish trucks all visiting small city streets at once could be solved with a bit of inspiration from Manhattan.

While residents in the borough of Westminster have their rubbish taken by one collector, the borough’s 3,100 licensed premises – including offices, shops and restaurants – are serviced by over 50 commercial waste collectors.

Westminster Council wants to cut down the number of private collectors with overlapping routes, in the hope of reducing vehicle movements and air pollution.

“In a place like Westminster, you see that the majority of vehicles are private hire and waste disposal. In places like Soho and Marylebone it’s all you’ll see,” said councillor Melvyn Caplan, the deputy leader and cabinet member for city management.

“It’s something that’s not visible to people from outside the area but people get in touch about it all the time.

“The collections happen in time slots, say 6pm-7pm, and you could get 10 vehicles arriving in one area in that slot.

“So for a long time we have been battling this, and with a climate emergency this is not a sustainable scenario.”

The council says it proposes taking inspiration from New York City, which until recently had 90 different commercial waste collectors, and where 50 would reportedly service a single neighbourhood.

Westminster’s proposal is to cut the number of companies down to “three to five” collectors for the borough, which stretches from Pimlico to West Kilburn.

Those few companies would be chosen by the council using a competitive tendering process, Cllr Caplan said. But the changes will first need a change in the law.

“While we would not be asking for the council to have a monopoly in this, we’ve been in discussions with the Government about reducing the number of collectors,” he said.

“And they agree that this is something that makes sense and it takes legislative change.

“The government agrees that in Westminster there should be three to five companies, which would dramatically reduce the movements and bring efficiencies.”