DCLG minister Brandon Lewis has criticised South Gloucestershire council for using residents as cash cows, after the local authority introduced a charge for green waste collections in March 2014.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday (June 30), the MP for Great Yarmouth slammed the 36 charge as a back-door bin tax, and argued councillors who vote in such measures should be named to ensure transparency.
‘It is disappointing that South Gloucestershire council is introducing a charge for garden waste collection. Such charges threaten to increase fly-tipping, increasing the clean-up costs for the council and harming the environment in the long run as well.’
Brandon Lewis, DCLG
The council voted to introduce the charge in September 2013, and implemented it on March 31. However, according to local Conservative MP for Kingswood, Chris Skidmore who raised the issue in Parliament – just 36,000 out of 109,000 households have opted to pay for the service.
South Gloucestershire council has argued it needed to implement the charge in order to protect frontline services but the move has provoked a backlash with 4,200 residents in the Kingswood constituency signing a petition to reverse the charge.
Mr Lewis yesterday called the councils reasoning a tired refrain, and said it should stop moaning about financial hardship and make sensible savings by joint working, cutting fraud and protecting services.
The minister went on to link the bin tax to the councils decision to roll out fortnightly collections of residual waste and blamed the trend on the previous Government pushing stealth taxes on households.
‘Disappointing’
Mr Lewis said: It is disappointing that South Gloucestershire council is introducing a charge for garden waste collection. Such charges threaten to increase fly-tipping, increasing the clean-up costs for the council and harming the environment in the long run as well.
He added: It is particularly disappointing that charging has been introduced in an area where fortnightly collections of residual waste have recently been introduced.
Moving to a fortnightly collection of residual waste may appear an easy or eager choice for a council that wishes to save some money, but such a decision can often be made without thinking creatively about how to make cost-effective changes to the service while retaining a five-star weekly refuse collection frequency. There is no need to introduce any more stealth taxes for refuse.
Mr Lewis’ comments came in the wake of hints from Communities Secretary Eric Pickles on the weekend that the Conservatives would enforce weekly refuse collections if they win the 2015 general election.
In response, the Local Government Association said that the vast majority of householders in England were happy with the way their waste is collected, whether weekly or fortnightly (see letsrecycle.com story).
Birmingham
Green waste charges have also proved controversial in other areas of England, with Birmingham city council coming under fire for imposing a 35 charge on residents. The move led to a stand-off between the local authority and households in the run up to the local elections in May (see letsrecycle.com story).
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