RESTAURATEURS have invited a Bournemouth councillor to meet with them after communal bins were installed metres from their business.

As reported in the Daily Echo, two new bins were placed outside Italian restaurant and coffee bar Del Marco in Yelverton Road last month.

The receptacles, which are chained to the ground, lie less than two metres from an outside seating area.

Kas Restelica, who runs Del Marco with Edward Hila, has extended an open invitation to Bournemouth council’s cabinet member for cleansing and waste, Councillor Mike Greene.

“We have invited him for a meeting for us, but we haven’t heard anything back,” Mr Restelica said.

“We’d like to invite him to meet us here so he can sit outside and see it for himself.”

The bins are for the flats in Verulam Place. There are some 50 properties in the cul de sac.

Mr Restelica said: “We’re just asking for some common sense to be used.

“We’re perfectly happy for the bins to be here - we just want them moved further away from the front of the restaurant.

“Even 10 yards would make a huge difference to us and our customers.”

When the businessman arrived at work last week, the bins were full and rubbish had been strewn across the street. Cups, cans and paper towels were among the rubbish.

Customers Julian Wood and Martin Davies said the bins “aren’t hygienic”.

“It’s not very nice,”Mr Davies said. “It would stop me sitting outside.”

Mr Wood said: “It would definitely stop me sitting outside in hot weather. The smell would put me off.

“It’s just not very hygienic.”

Mr Hila said the outside seating area sits 16.

“It’s going to have such a detrimental effect, from an environmental point of view and from a visual point of view,” he said.

Council officials say the bins have been installed as part of a three-month trial.

Mr Hila and Mr Restelica were informed of the installation just days before.

Cllr Greene has previously told the Daily Echo: “There are around 50 properties in Verulam Place.

“There is not a particular place for residents to have their rubbish collected. Previously, rubbish has been left in black bags outside each property for collection.

“This causes problems with seagulls, which rip open the bags and leave litter everywhere.”