(101)  The battle of the bins

On 15 March 2001 Lord MacLean in the Outer House of the Court of Session upheld Mr Charlie McKeller’s petition against Aberdeen City Council seeking the removal of the communal rubbish bins (‘wheelie bins’) which the Council had placed outside his home in Wallfield Crescent, Aberdeen.  It was not necessary for Mr McKeller to invoke the European Convention on Human Rights, however.  The Council argued that the placing of the bins was justified as a traffic-calming measure under the Roads (Traffic Calming) Regulations 1994, and also as receptacles for road refuse under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, since ‘road refuse’ could include the contents of domestic refuse bags once scattered by seagulls.  The court held that neither measure provided a basis for the use of wheelie bins.