Thank you all for the for the great and intelligent suggestions. I did, as suggested, contact the local council and their response was that the bins could be exchanged for boxes (for recycling) and black plastic bins for rubbish. They did seem to be in denial, however, that the slope, steps wheelie bin combination was inherently hazardous! Hmm! I did in fact search and come across the other thread on this matter in this forum but seemed unable to post to it because it was too old, so I started this new thread. Question is: are wheelie bins on steps potentially hazardous or am I just a clumsy old fool having a gripe. Answer is ??? At least there is now a bit more online about the subject thanks to the excellent contributions here.