Vandals slammed after six litter bins thrown into city’s river

Vandals that threw six litter bins into the River Stour on Friday night have been branded ‘thoughtless idiots’. 

A team from Canterbury City Council’s waste contractor retrieved the bins from the river in the Kingsmead area of the city on Monday (18 November). 

Cllr Charlotte Cornell, the council’s Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Council Services, Culture and Heritage: “To say I am livid is an absolute understatement.  

“To put it simply, the people who decided doing this with public bins was a good idea are thoughtless idiots, who care little for their community. 

“Quite often vandalism is described as mindless when the very opposite is the case.   

“These people would have had to have gone out of their way to deliberately lift heavy bins that were packed full of litter into the river not once but six times. Normal people take care of their rubbish in the right way. 

“People will say these bins should be bolted down – they shouldn’t have to be!” 

Cllr Mel Dawkins, the council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, is also furious because that stretch of the river is home to all sorts of wonderful wildlife and was recently cleared by volunteers. 

She said: “To see pictures of bins in the river is utterly galling especially when you consider the harm that could come to the precious creatures that live there. These people simply do not care. 

“Weeks after the Great Stour Riverfest event, it is even more infuriating when you realise that these actions have undone hours and hours of hard and backbreaking work to clear the river in recent weeks. 

“We really value their efforts. The vandals simply do not.” 

River warden Sian Pettman is grateful to the Canenco team. 

She said: “A huge thanks to Canenco – especially Chris Murphy, Sarah Burns and Phil King – for removing the bins from the river that some stupid idiots threw in on Friday night.  

“Once full of river water, the bins are extremely heavy and cumbersome to remove.

“There were no less than six bins in the river in the Sainsbury’s area, with rubbish spewing out of them.  

“One little fish was retrieved from the rubbish and placed back in the river.” 

Image credit: Sian Pettman

Published: 19 November 2024