Bizarre wheelie bin protest targets councillor's house

Hounslow residents are furious at the council's decision to introduce wheelie bins, arguing that they are impractical for rows of terraced houses with tiny front gardens. They have been speaking out against them, but yesterday decided to take matters into their own hands - and dumped 25 of them in front of the council leader's house.

According to Brentford TW8, the bins arrived in Brentford a day earlier, angering protesters. They felt that the council had made a poor decision, without consulting locals, and had ignored petitions and protests.

They had previously taken a petition round the neighbourhood, so they went back to everyone who had signed the petition and asked to use their bins in a protest.

The Daily Mail reported that they then piled the bins in front Councillor Steve Curran's (60) house, ready for when he got home from work. When he arrived, some stern words were exchanged, and Curran called the police. One 65-year-old demonstrator was arrested on suspicion of harassment.
%VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-council-stories%
Wheelie crazy

Wheelie bins have the power to get people incredibly upset - and they have done so on a surprisingly regular basis this year.

Back in July, protestors marched on Cardiff City Hall with their bins, bashing the lids as councillors arrived for a meeting. They were campaigning about the same thing - having to store inappropriate bins in small front gardens of terraced houses.

But things can get even more out of hand. In August, armed police rushed to a Gloucester neighbourhood. It was the culmination of a long-running argument about a fence, which involved one man leaving his bin as close to his neighbour's window as possible until he snapped.

Back in July, a man in Plymouth deliberately drove at his neighbour in the street. The two had been arguing for some time about car parking, and wheelie bins being left out to reserve a space. He was given a suspended sentence and ordered to do an anger management course.

And in March, a man in Middlesbrough was jailed for five years after stabbing his neighbour just below the heart. The two households had a long-running disagreement about the bins. On the day of the attack, the man had confronted the woman next door about the bins, and when her husband rushed outside to calm things down he was stabbed in the chest.