So much for recycling
 

On Sunday me and the grumpy old man next door decided to clear the 'garden' at the back of my house, it was overgrown with tree's, brambles and branches. it didnt take us long to cut them all down, the grumpy old man decided it wasn't a great idea to let his daughter run wild with the electric saw so he kept it far away from me :( anyhow...i dragged all the brambles, twigs and branches to the front of the house (there's a tree in there somewhere too) i called Blackburn with Darwen council up this morning to ask if they could take them away...and their answer was....'yes for a minimum charge of £25' :rolleyes:

we do have a wheelie bin for garden waste but it aint going to take the huge amount that i have even if i break it all up, i don't want to burn it because i don't want to naff the garden up, i've stripped quite a few of the branches down to make a sort of fence inbetween the tree's that are left but other than that what the hell am i supposed to do with the rest?

Re: So much for recycling
 

You don't really want us to answer that do you shaz:D

Re: So much for recycling
 

any suggestion other than 'shove it up your backside' would be useful lol

Re: So much for recycling
 

You could have a bonfire on ground you plan to dig over, the ash will be good for the soil.

I would check your by-laws though before doing it, as some Councils frown upon such things these days, perhaps they feel they are losing out on lot's of £25 if they allow you to have one?

Re: So much for recycling
 

the land that we did at the back of the house still has some tree's Less and is too close to the house to be able to burn anything, i don't want to spoil the grass at the side and front, thats my pride and joy

Re: So much for recycling
 

You could ask some of your neighbours if they could spare a bit of space each in their recycling bins? If it doesn't get rid of enough you'll probably just have to get rid of a binful at a time till it's gone. Not ideal but free.

Failing that, collar the binmen when they next come round. Ours are always very obliging when we have extra stuff to get rid of.

As a last resort, save up and pay the £25. It's not a huge amount of money and would save tremendous hassle for you.

I'm surprised they're asking you for money though as HBC offer up to five extra collections per household per year for nothing. Do you fall within the purview of Blackburn Council, Shaz?

Re: So much for recycling
 

Hyndburn's policy may be different.

I recall the days before recycling bins happened, at a time when I had built a garden in a terraced house back yard. I had a lot of climbers that needed an annual prune.
One autumn they got missed due to a bad case of flu, and by the next autumn the pruning load was enormous - about 8 wheelie bins might have coped.

I rang the council and they cleared a patio full of prunings for FREE

Re: So much for recycling
 

yes we are classed as Blackburn Ken, we are just over the border, they remove household things for free, just not garden waste

if it is there for more than 2 weeks i will get a letter off Twin Valley homes telling me to remove it or else

Re: So much for recycling
 

Chop it up, bag it, put it in the car & take it to a recycling centre where they have skips for gardening watse.

Re: So much for recycling
 

Its surprising how much you can fit in a wheelie bin if you cut it up. I stick loads of garden waste in my grey bin because the council seem to think I dont have a garden so I don't get a green bin. Fill up the grumpy old mans as well :D

Re: So much for recycling
 

is it any wonder fly tipping is getting to be a bigger problem when councils wont even provide basic waste removal despite already been paid to do it along with other services paid by council tax


burn it at the weekend so no one from the council will be sniffing about to come tell you off and if anyone says out say you piled it up for removal and the local scallywags must have set it on fire

Re: So much for recycling
 

Don't worry about any letter from Twin valley shaz ;)

and if you see any of our neighbourhood workers doing any gardening in the area just ask them nicely, they are usually very good too

Re: So much for recycling
 

Neil - you can request a green waste collection, even if you don't have a green bin. Just ring 388111 or 399988 and ask to have it picked up.

Re: So much for recycling
 

Saturday 27 March 10.00am to 4.00pm
Experimental Mixed Media with Pam Potter
Pam potter was born in Penrith , Cumbria ; daughter of the artist Stella Platt. She was educated in Southport, and trained in Fine Art with textiles at the Harris College of Art, Preston . She has a further degree in Education and History of Art, and for most of her career has been a lecturer in Fine Art and Calligraphy at both Blackburn and Preston Colleges.
The development of fabric and paper collage as a medium in the late 60s and 70s was a rejection of mainstream painting and concerned the gender power struggle within art at that time. Pam's work in collage led to a solo exhibition sponsored by North West Arts in Lancaster and further shows across Lancashire . Pam continues to exhibit widely throughout the North West including the Manchester Academy and has shown in London, America, and Europe .
The workshop will include practical experience of working in pastel, graphite, charcoal, collage and other mixed media and painting straight from the tube. Sprays, rollers, scratching, tissue paper, ink, modelling pastes and powdered gesso will be used to develop the representation of the participant's chosen subject into a fantasy of colour and texture, the experimental and the unexpected. Participants will be encouraged to make drawing marks with twigs, ruling pens and plastic spreaders to depict patterns found in the landscape, for example, or whatever fits their chosen composition.
Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington - Workshops, Talks and Activities at the Haworth Art Gallery

Re: So much for recycling
 

I know that thank you for posting though.

Its just a touch annoying that I cant just throw it straight in the bin out of the way when I have finished gardening.

Re: So much for recycling
 

thanx hun, its gonna take me a few weeks to be able to get rid of them in my brown bin anyway, its full already and they don't even come out till next week, we don't get many neighbourhood workers around here, there's nothing much for them to do apart from the grass verges really

Re: So much for recycling
 

Grass verges will be the responsibility of Blackburn with Darwen as they are part of the highway.

Hyndburn just ignore them and did not cut our once last year. They did manage to spray them with something that killed most of the grass again turning them into a muddy mess for winter.

I wonder if you can buy RPG's on ebay for the next time that bloke is riding his quad up the street indiscriminately spraying weed killer on the grass?

Re: So much for recycling
 

dont be a snob throw bricks at him like the rest of us have to :)

Re: So much for recycling
 

It would seem to me that you have most of the basic materials there to construct a wattle and daub structure in your back garden; all that now appears lacking is mud (that should be easily available) and cow dung (somewhat more problamatic). However should you manage to lay your hands on the latter two items, it should not be to difficult to erect your little building out the back.

I would suggest you commence by constructing four interwoven latticeworks, approx. 6ft X 4ft using your old branches, twigs, etc, and then place them in a square shape in the garden. Then, having obtained the requisite mud and cow muck, you make a 60/40 mixture up, adding water as you go along - not too much, mind - and then plaster the said substance on to your latticework. Then construct a 4 x 4 piece of a similar nature. Erect the three large sides , stick the smaller piece on the top. and then lean the final larger piece against the open side.

Voila! You now have an organic, outside ****house which should add about twenty grand to the value of your house.

My fee for this advice is £600pds - I no longer take cheques and postal orders, so you can PM me your bank details.

Re: So much for recycling
 

Are you available in the school holdays?
You could do a 'Learning Through Art' workshop, up at the Haworth.

Re: So much for recycling
 

Actually not true as many of our estates we have responsibility of the verges.

In other areas we also have an agreement in place with BWDBC that they do parts of ours and vice versa to prevent this ..."right we mow up to there and then stop" making areas look uneven and frequently ridiculous

Re: So much for recycling
 

i don't live on an estate... (i'm gonna cry in a minute) *sob*

the estate is down the rough end *sob sob*

Re: So much for recycling
 

Oh Shaz don't cry, I am sure you can get a move down onto the estate if you ask them nicely :p:D

Re: So much for recycling
 

don't get clever