Golden bin man set to surprise sensible Derby shoppers with prizes
IF you sensibly throw your litter into a city centre bin, don't be alarmed if a man dressed all in gold bounds up and offers his congratulations.
It is all part of Derby City Council's "Golden Bin" idea to encourage people to not drop rubbish on the floor.
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Joe Coleman
The character, who has been named Ivor Bin-dit, will pop up when he sees someone put litter in a nearby bin properly – and reward them with a £5 gift voucher. It will be launched on Saturday and will initially run for a week.
The council said the cost of the scheme would be "negligible" as only 100 vouchers would be handed out at first.
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However, it could be expanded if the idea proves successful.
Councillor Ranjit Banwait said the idea was to encourage people to "bin it" and not drop litter on the streets of Derby.
He said the Golden Bin scheme was a fun way to get the message across that dropping litter affected us all and makes our city look dirty and uncared for.
"We thought that we could have a bit of fun with the idea of the Ivor Bin-dit character giving out his vouchers to people he sees using the bins," said Mr Banwait, cabinet member for neighbourhoods.
It coincides with the Telegraph's Clean Up Derby campaign, which wants to see people take more responsibility for the state of the city's streets and dispose of rubbish sensibly.
Mr Banwait is supporting our campaign.
He said: "We all need to take responsibility. It is unacceptable to drop litter and expect others to clean it up.
"Our street cleansing team do an excellent job but our valuable public services are under threat from government cuts. We need to band together to protect them.
"Let's all ditch our litter in the bin and see how clean and tidy the city can be."
As part of the council's wider litter strategy, three streets in Normanton have already been targeted in a cleaning "blitz". It saw fly-tipped waste removed, pavements swept, roads repaired, and graffiti removed.
The council is currently working up plans for when and where the next blitz will take place.
Comments
by Derby_born
Friday, December 07 2012, 2:14PM
“Just heard this story on BBC Radio Derby and the man in the golden suit is named Joe Coleman, although he is not the same Joe Coleman who regularly writes letters to the Telegraph.
see this article about Jim fixing it for Joe Coleman, before the JS scandal became news:
http://tinyurl.com/cvzkwzq”
by Antony_Rol
Thursday, December 06 2012, 9:55PM
“Derby_born
Apparently our mutual friend Joe writes into the paper so often that every time the automated spell checkers that are used at the DT offices spot a nonsensical balmy article or idea they naturally default to printing his name at the bottom
It's one of the time saving cost cutting measures introduced as part of the recent Northcliffe sell out 'if it makes no sense, put Joe's name to it,send him another pen and Bennetts voucher, keep him quiet for another month'
Unfortunately there was a "software error" today and syntaxColeman got scrambled with syntaxBanwait
Hence his (non) appearance beneath the photo,shame as it has done your hardworking friend a great dis-service”
by Derby_born
Thursday, December 06 2012, 8:16PM
“I would like know why the photo caption reads "Joe Coleman". I recognise the man in the photo as one of the hard working Street Pride team who clean the chewing gum off the city centre pavements.
This person is always helpful to members of the public who ask questions about his work, so no matter how barmy tbe idea is, the council have probably chosen the best employee for the job. I personally would have preferred to see Councillor Banwaite dresed in the gold suit and giving out prizes paid for out of his own pocket.
I was not aware that our Council is now run by the Monster Raving Loony Party!”
by make_redgreen
Thursday, December 06 2012, 7:36PM
“Great first comment Ziggy, just what I'd have posted.
It's like our overlords bum us at every turn, but if you're one of the lucky winners, you might just get a reacharound!”
by smshogun
Thursday, December 06 2012, 6:29PM
“Instead of paying someone dressed as a fool to give vouchers away, how about getting him to pick any dropped litter up, this would be a much better use of resources.”
by troy27
Thursday, December 06 2012, 6:16PM
“A £5 note is rubbish these days,make it £50 reward in line with inflation.”
by kimbolulu
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:25PM
“What a stupid idea. you are going to get people standing about with a bit of litter in there hand hoping that mr Gold man whatever he is called will spot them then jump out at them and give them a wonderful voucher but hey ho we have got plenty of money to waste.”
by kathy206
Thursday, December 06 2012, 4:18PM
“I'd rather they save the money to be honest and not charge me for using my brown bin.”
by Doder
Thursday, December 06 2012, 3:57PM
“Load of Rubbish!!! Fine the ones dropping it and fine them.Make money for the council,clean the place up,and save money for the council tax payer..Simples.”
by Derby_born
Thursday, December 06 2012, 3:08PM
“Surely it would be far more effective to have someone with a big net on a pole who can jump out from behind a shop doorway or from around a corner, and catch people who have dropped litter?
This person could have the title of "Litter Bug Catcher" and be dressed in an appropriate costume:
http://tinyurl.com/bhpnpox”