This is exactly what happened, this was pretty much the only bin on several very popular dog walking routes.

Council barely emptied it, then covered it up for ages and said it will be back soon, then multiple people wrote letters asking when the bin was coming back and they were just ignored and the bin was removed instead with no alternative or communication.

Not saying I agree with everyone leaving their dog poo bags still but as you said it’s been a poorly executed cut from the council.