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Ickenham residents try to save their dog bins. Could Ruislip follow?

Published on 3rd November 2026 in Issues

Hillingdon Council is removing all 700 of its dog waste bins from January. In Ickenham, residents have launched Bin There, Dung That, an effort to take over their bins and keep them emptied themselves. If enough people back it, Ruislip and Ruislip Manor could try the same, but first someone local needs to lead it.

On 15 October we reported that Hillingdon Council planned to remove every one of its roughly 700 dog waste bins. We thought it was one story among many last month. Within two weeks it had been picked up by the BBC, the Guardian, Metro, The Sun, MyLondon and LocalGov.

We follow the Council more closely than most, and it’s rare for anything we publish to grab everyone’s attention. Dog poo, it turns out, does. Last month we were busy elsewhere:

With all that going on, we couldn’t take the dog bins any further ourselves.

Cllr Wayne Bridges, the cabinet member responsible, told LocalGov: “We have received a number of emails from what appears to be an orchestrated campaign from a particular resident association against these plans.”

That wasn’t us. We ran no email campaign on the dog bins: we were stretched far too thin by everything above. So which residents’ association does he mean, and why not name it?

And what would be wrong with it if there had been one? A campaign is just residents choosing to tell their council what they think. Nobody is made to take part. When hundreds of people take a few minutes to email their councillors, that isn’t something to explain away. It’s local democracy working.

Then something better happened. A resident in Ickenham decided not to wait for the Council to change its mind, and built a plan to keep the bins anyway. It’s called Bin There, Dung That, and we think Ruislip should pay attention.

A quick recap

The decision was approved on 22 October, without a formal public consultation. In short:

  • What goes: about 700 standalone dog waste bins, across the whole borough.
  • When: “I can take dog waste too” stickers go on selected litter bins from mid-November. Removals start in late January 2027.
  • The money: emptying the dog bins costs about £160,000 a year. The Council will put £60,000 back into street cleaning, so the net saving is about £100,000.
  • The waste: about 174 tonnes a year, roughly 14.5 tonnes a month, now has to go in litter bins or your own wheelie bin.
  • What you’re told to do: use one of the Council’s nearly 1,500 ordinary litter bins, or carry it home.

As we said at the time, some dog bins already overflow between collections. Some sit nowhere near a litter bin, including one in Ruislip Woods. Hillingdon’s budget gap for 2027-28 is £48.3 million, and this saving covers about 0.2% of it.

Ickenham’s answer: Bin There, Dung That

The idea is simple. Instead of letting the Council rip out Ickenham’s roughly 30 dog bins, ask it to hand them over to the community. Residents, local businesses and volunteers then keep them emptied and looked after.

The logic is hard to argue with. Replacing Ickenham’s bins later would cost around £15,000. Pulling out perfectly good bins, only for residents to buy new ones for the same spots, makes no sense to anyone.

The website is one of the best-made local campaign sites we’ve seen. It asks people to do four things:

  1. Pledge a Pound for the Mound. Say what you’d chip in each month: £2, £5, £10 or whatever suits. It’s a promise, not a payment. Nobody pays anything until there’s enough support and the real costs are known.
  2. Adopt-a-Bin. A household, street or local business sponsors a bin for £150 a year. You name it, and it can carry a sticker with your name and a QR code.
  3. Map the bins. A live map shows every dog bin in Ickenham, and anyone can add one that’s missing, ideally while standing next to it.
  4. Join the Dooty Roster. Volunteer as a Leaflet Legend, Bin Doctor, Legal Beagle or Chief Dogsbody. No experience needed, “just enthusiasm and a strong stomach”.

For scale: across the borough, £160,000 to empty 700 bins works out at about £230 per bin per year. The real cost for a community scheme will depend on the quotes Ickenham gets, and the site promises to publish them before anyone pays a penny.

And if the Council does a U-turn? The campaign says it will happily stand down. Until then, it would rather be prepared than left holding the bag.

What people are saying

The response in Ickenham has been overwhelmingly positive. Residents have offered to sponsor bins, pledged to chip in, and praised the idea. Some of the warmest support has come from people without dogs.

The feedback has already improved the scheme. When residents pointed out that the Aylsham Drive estate and its playground bins sat outside the boundary, the boundary was quickly redrawn to include them.

There are fair points on the other side too, and we’d be doing our readers no favours if we skipped them:

  • Responsible owners already do the right thing. Several people noted that a general bin works fine. The people who hang bags from trees probably won’t be changed by a sticker.
  • Boundaries matter. Some asked why the scheme covers Ickenham rather than the whole Ickenham and South Harefield ward. A wider area could carry more weight with the Council later.
  • It shouldn’t let the Council off the hook. Plenty of residents asked why a borough with a £48 million gap is chasing £100,000 here. A community scheme is a backstop, not an excuse.
  • Nothing is agreed yet. The Council hasn’t said it will hand over any bins. Pledges are the evidence that would make that case.

Wanted: Ruislip’s first Sh*t Tsar

Here’s the best part. Bin There, Dung That will set up a copy of its site for any Hillingdon ward that wants one, with its own bin map, pledges and volunteer roster. It will also share everything it has learned so far.

The one thing it can’t supply is a local leader. So we’re asking: would you lead it for Ruislip or Ruislip Manor?

When we got in touch, Zach, who runs the Ickenham campaign, was delighted to be featured. He described the role like this:

“It’s a prestigious role, of course – no salary, no pension, no official powers, but plenty of opportunities to talk passionately about poo bins!”

You don’t need to be an expert. You need to care about your pavements, have a few hours a month, and be willing to talk to neighbours and the Council. The template, the website and the know-how already exist.

We’d love to take it on ourselves, but the RRA team has already bitten off far more than it can chew. What we can promise is this: if someone takes it on in Ruislip or Ruislip Manor, we’ll help spread the word, and some of us will be first in line to pledge.

How to get involved

And if you don’t have a dog and wonder why you should care? As Ickenham puts it: because you have shoes.

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