1000s of wheelie bins stolen
More than £40,000 of taxpayers' cash has been spent replacing thousands of lost or stolen wheelie bins across the Black Country and Staffordshire, the Express & Star can reveal today.
Seven councils in the region have shelled out a total of £42,745 in the last couple of years to replace nearly 3,000 bins.
Councils in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell, Stafford, Cannock, Lichfield and Walsall have revealed how many requests they have had for new bins.
The top spender has been Stafford Borough Council where more than £25,000 was spent replacing 1,704 bins between April 2005 and March 2007.
Walsall replaced 1139 bins in 2006 alone, but most of the £6,419 cost was met by residents who were asked to pay £16.50 each.
At Wolverhampton Council between July 2005 and June 2007 just over £8,000 was spent replacing 534 bins. In Sandwell 69 were replaced between 2005 and 2007 at a cost of £810 .
In Lichfield, council chiefs replaced 169 bins between 2006 and 2007 for just over £2,700. In Dudley 124 bins were replaced between April 2006 and July 2007 costing more than £1,600. And in Cannock, 52 bins were replaced at a cost of £1,000.
