Posted By Swis An extract from a letter sent to households by East Staffordshire Borough Council; Re: Wheelie Bins " To empty wheeled bins with the lids not fully closed would be a breach of health and safety regulations" Your comments will be highly appreciated.

Posted By Ron Hunter I guess we'll never get full closure on these kind of issues. Surprising really that they've managed to keep a lid on it so long. They must have bin wheely careful! One for the RSES file.

Posted By AHS I would say making the public push/pull them onto the pavement was worse as they are damn heavy.

Posted By Rob Yuill It is clearly not a breach of regulations. Leaving environmental issues to one side, having the lid open when using vehicle mounted lifting equipment could result in damage to either the bin or lifter or the bin becoming detached. That is not to say it would, but it has happened and could easily re-occur. The other consideration is the weight of the bin for manual handling. Each size of bin has a maximum weight limit, if households cram more in the weight must increase, this could affect handling of the bin and safe load on the lifter. Has anyone seen a car engine block in a wheelie bin? I have! Some people's stupidity is only exceeded by those attempting to impose barmy H&S rules! Rob

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Posted By Graham Bullough The sentence quoted is just sloppy English. I guess that the council is trying to tell householders not to put out wheelie bins for emptying if their lids are not fully closed. However, its phrasing leaves us wondering who would be in breach of the alleged regulations - householders and/or those who come along with their lorry to empty them?! If it is the case that bins with raised lids are likely to foul the lorry's bin emptying mechanism, why not say so rather than (mis)quote "elf n safety"? As an "incentive" for householders to avoid overfilling their bins, the council could advise that overfilled bins won't get emptied. Compliments to Ron Hunter for his response last Friday - a good succinct piece of Friday frivolity for this forum.