Hillingdon Council is to remove every dedicated dog waste bin in the borough, scrapping all 700 of them in a cost-cutting move expected to save £160,000 a year.
Dog owners will instead be asked to use ordinary litter bins, which will be marked with stickers reading “I can take dog waste too” in parks and popular dog-walking spots. The stickers will be fitted before the specialised bins are physically removed in phases.
The borough’s dog waste amounts to 14.5 tonnes a month, and from now on it will go into the general waste stream rather than being collected separately.
Why the council says the change is needed
The council’s case, set out in its report, is that running a separate dog waste collection service is “no longer necessary” now that general waste bins can handle the volume. Officers described the policy as “the most effective and efficient option available to the council”.
Of the £160,000 annual saving, £60,000 will be channelled into general street cleaning across the borough, leaving a net saving of £100,000 a year.
Officers did look at softer options before settling on full removal. Keeping every bin, or removing only those bins that sit immediately next to an ordinary litter bin, were both considered and rejected. The reason given was that retaining any part of the dedicated infrastructure would still mean funding a separate collection service, which would wipe out much of the saving.
What changes for dog walkers
In practice, the change means the familiar small red or green dog bins will disappear from parks, towpaths and walking routes across Hillingdon, and owners will need to find a general litter bin instead. The council says the stickered bins in parks and dog-walking hotspots will make that straightforward, and that the stickers will go up before removals begin.
But residents have already spotted a gap in that plan. The Ruislip Residents’ Association has pointed out that the council has not published an accessible list or map showing where the alternative bins are, leaving walkers to discover the new arrangement for themselves.
The association also highlighted a problem that already exists under the current service, noting on its website that “some of Hillingdon’s dog bins already overflowed under the current collection service”. Its concern is that general bins, which also take other litter, could fill up faster and leave owners with nowhere to put bagged waste.
No consultation before sign-off
The plan was signed off without a formal public consultation, a shortcut the Ruislip Residents’ Association has openly criticised. Residents were not asked for their views before the decision was taken, despite the change affecting every dog walker in the borough.
The council’s own report does acknowledge one risk frankly: there is a tangible chance of an increase in dog fouling once the dedicated bins go. The report argues the risk can be managed through targeted warning signs, public communication campaigns and increased local enforcement, rather than by keeping the bins.
Whether that proves enough will be watched closely in the borough’s parks, where fouling is already a sore point for many residents. The test will come once the phased removals begin and the stickered general bins take over.
The decision reflects the wider squeeze on town hall budgets, with councils across the country re-examining specialist services that run separately from mainstream refuse collection. Dedicated dog bins have historically needed their own handling arrangements and separate collection rounds, which is what makes them an obvious target when savings have to be found.
For Hillingdon, the question now is whether a simpler, cheaper system keeps the borough’s parks as clean as the one it replaces. Residents’ groups will be watching the rollout — and the state of the bins that remain — closely.
Elsewhere in London, councils have faced similar scrutiny over service changes, including Haringey council being told to make fundamental changes after the housing regulator’s lowest grade and a Chalk Farm juice bar losing its giant cup after Camden Council stepped in. The Budget has also hit high street businesses, with 452 London vape shops facing full business rates after a carve-out.
