Planning Advice Note

Providing Refuse Storage Facilities in New Residential Developments

Advice to developers, architects and designers on best practice when designing refuse facilities for new residential developments.

This Advice Note does not comprise formal planning policy but it does outline those points which the Council would expect to be observed by designers when preparing planning submissions.

Background

The quantity of UK domestic waste is increasing at a rate of about 3% per year and local authorities are required to increase the amount of household waste recycled in future. While the majority of this refuse will be collected from existing dwellings throughout the Borough, it is important that the design of storage and collection arrangements for new dwellings are arranged with four particular points in mind:

The safety and efficiency of collections by the Council’s refuse contractors;
The size, convenience and accessibility of refuse storage for residents in any future dwelling;
Questions of amenity in the location, construction and appearance of any new refuse store; and,
Future management of any refuse store. Who will be responsible for keeping it clean and tidy?

The points which follow are intended to help in answering each of these design considerations.

Part H6 of the Building Regulations contains a number of requirements regarding the storage of solid waste. This Guidance supplements those Regulations and sets out the functional requirements of the Council as Waste Collection Authority.

Ease of Collection

The Council’s contractors will only collect refuse containers from a point immediately adjacent to a public highway where the refuse freighter can safely pause while loading. The Council’s contractors will not enter a private road unless a prior legal agreement has been entered into. Refuse storage serving dwellings on any private road should be positioned accordingly – generally with a safe refuse collection point or “area” allocated for use on collection days. For the safety and convenience of residents placing refuse containers ready for collection, a hard surfaced pathway from the refuse store to the loading point should be at least 1.5 metres wide and as near level as possible. There should be a dropped kerb at the highway edge to allow easy movement of larger wheeled containers. Steps or other hazards to ease of movement should be avoided.

Size of Refuse Store

The Council aim to provide 240 litres of refuse storage per household per week. Collections of refuse (green top bin) and recyclables (blue top bin) take place on alternate weeks. Bagged garden waste may also be collected along with recyclable wastes. Individual dwellings should therefore make provision for 2 x 240 litre refuse containers, ideally stored internally or away from the visible public domain, but with easy access to the highway edge – (see earlier).

In any communal refuse store separate provision should therefore be made for both refuse and recyclables at a combined total of 480 litres per household, with separate blue top and green top bins for collection on alternate weeks. Larger wheeled “Eurobins” may be used in communal refuse stores, although these must be located adjacent to the safe highway collection point, with no reliance on residents to reposition such heavier containers ready for collection.

Construction and Appearance

In flatted development refuse stores are best integrated into the ground floor of the building where they are easily accessible to residents without leaving the building and where they are likely to be better managed by users. However bins will only be collected from a collection point at the highway edge, and the selection of bin size and the route to and from a collection area at the highway edge should allow for ease of use.

A safe and well designated area should always be allocated for the placing of residents’ bins on collection day.

The design of refuse storage facilities can have an adverse impact on the character of existing buildings, streets and spaces. This is particularly the case in Conservation Areas and near Listed Buildings. For this reason purpose built external bin enclosures need careful design as an integral part of the domestic built environment as a whole. They should never be added merely as an afterthought. They and the activity associated with them should be at a neighbourly distance from the habitable windows of any nearby dwelling and should not form the foreground of views from any dwelling, including pre-existing dwellings nearby. External bin enclosures should be of durable construction with roof, external materials, scale and location to complement the proposed development - and the street or area as a whole. They should be well ventilated and secure, with drainage to facilitate periodic cleansing. Doors should incorporate self closures to prevent access by foraging animals.

The size of enclosure should provide space for the required number of bins or Eurobins, plus space for them to be easily accessed by residents, and manoeuvred to and from the highway edge. (See Part H6 of the Building Regulations Approved Document).

The Council provide 240 litre wheeled bins but developers are responsible for providing any of the larger 1100 litre Eurobins when those are proposed as an alternative.

Management

Communal refuse stores or external enclosures have the potential to become unsightly and a nuisance if they are not adequately managed. Many residential developments have a management company for maintenance of communal areas and grounds. It is extremely important that where an individual household are not responsible for managing their own refuse, some organisation or individual has charge of maintaining and cleansing communal refuse facilities and, for example, placing the correct bins out for collection each week. Careless misuse of a bin enclosure may well constitute “fly tipping” which is an offence.