Shopkeepers in Horsham town centre are angry at council plans to build a £100,000 rubbish bin store near their shops.
Published 6th Jun 2023, 16:22 BST
Updated 6th Jun 2023, 16:23 BST
Horsham District Council wants to build an enclosed roof-less 2.5 metre high brick walled bin store in Park Place to house rubbish from residents living in nearby flats at Burton’s Court.
But angry shopkeepers say it is a waste of money and should be built elsewhere. Council planners are to meet tonight (Tuesday) to decide the issue.
Louise Abbott, owner of Pretty Things tea room, said: “It isn’t right the way the council is treating independent traders. There are other places the bin store could go and I can’t believe they are wasting £120,000 of public funds on it. It should be more like £3,000 or £4,000.”
She said bins had been sited in Park Place since the building of the new £8 million Piries Place car park in 2019. Previously residents’ rubbish had been collated within the car park itself and traders say that is where the new bin store should go.
“We have all been saying we don’t want this bin store,” said Louise. “ We are all against it because of the mess and the smell it brings with it.
“We have been putting up with rubbish there for the past two and a half years. There are needles, rats, drug addicts – all sorts – at the end of the street.”
And, she said, local residents and traders had not been informed that the council was to decide the issue at a meeting tonight with officers recommending approval.
She said she had been meeting with officials for the past two years and had been told the traders would have a chance to put forward their views before any decisions. “I don’t think a true democratic process has been carried out.”
If it goes ahead, the bin store – on land owned by West Sussex County Council – would house 12 bins with rubbish being collected on an alternate weekly basis.
The bin store would be managed by Southern Housing who manage the flats at Burton’s Court.