Throughout the past few council meetings, there has been a constant theme being relayed to South Hams District Council, though there doesn’t seem to be much improvement as the town council claims, ‘it’s bad for our visitors’.

Salcombe Town Council have pointed out that lack of public bin collection is a major issue, and will only get worse as the summer months roll in.

In April, town councillors urged SHDC to ensure bin emptying become a priority in Salcombe, especially moving into the busy season. However, during the early Spring Bank Holiday Weekend, where Salcombe saw it’s first wave of busyness with Crabfest and the exceptionally good weather, Cllr Mike Fice pointed out that bins were only emptied once a day.

During the annual general town council meeting on May 9, Cllr Fice said: “We have just had our first busy weekend since we had our meeting about bin collections. We stressed the point that during busy times, such as bank holiday weekends we needed two if not three bin emptyings per day. Over this weekend, which has been a very busy weekend with Crabfest, the bins have only been emptied first thing in the morning. And every single day they have all been overflowing.”

However, the message seems to be getting lost in translation, as District Cllr Simon Wright said: “That’s clearly not what the schedule says which is a minimum of two if not three.”

Cllr Fice replied: “But we only had one and that’s what was on the schedule because I spoke to one of the collectors. And it would have been a lot worse if the rotary hadn’t gone around picking up all of the loose bits that were alongside all of the bins. I dread to think of what it would have been like had they not gone around doing that.”

Cllr Lindy Sinnott piped in: “It’s bad for our visitors!”

There is also the issue of a bin being removed from Whitestrand carpark, which is a focal point for rubbish, both from boats and land. SHDC has replaced the two bins with one ‘larger’ bin, arguing that the one new bin is the same capacity as two old ones. This has forced businesses around the carpark to put out their own bins for the public to use because the council-provided one is overflowing.

Cllr Philip Lafferty-Holt said: “As far as the overflowing bins, it would have been a lot worse had Captain Morgans not put their wheelie bins out for disposal by the public. So that means there were three wheelie bins full, on top of the one bin that is supposed to be there, and that was just the one day. I still don’t think the amount of bins provided is sufficient for the amount of mess that is made.”

Cllr Simon Wright reassured the town council that the issue will be addressed and looked after as soon as possible.