Councillors will vote on introducing a charge from April 2015 at a cabinet meeting next Wednesday (February 18), after it had carried out a four week consultation on the proposals in December. Residents were asked whether they would be keen to keep the service, but pay an annual subscription fee of £40, or for the service to be dropped altogether.
North East Lincolnshire council has revisited the proposal after rejecting a similar move that had been put forward in 2011. It was claimed at the time that a charge for green waste collections could hit recycling rates by up to 7% (see letsrecycle.com story).
20% of the 880 residents who took part in the consultation told the council that they would like the service to remain free of charge, but a total of 52% said that they would support the move to a paid-for service.
The council currently provides a free fortnightly kerbside garden waste collection service to around 56,000 households (78%) within the borough at an annual cost of £1.3million to collect and dispose of this waste. Around 12,000 tonnes of green waste is collected by the local authority annually, all of which is composted at open windrow sites locally.
In a report ahead of next week’s cabinet meeting, the council noted that neighbouring authorities have reported take up levels of between 30% and 57% since introducing charges.
Participation
North East Lincs believes that a take up rate of 30%, similar to that seen by City of Lincoln council is likely to be seen should it press ahead with a charge. As such it is likely that the council would adopt a £40 annual subscription fee for residents, although councillors will also consider whether the fee should be set at a lower level (around £25), if there is a higher up-take of the service by residents.
It is believed that if a 30% participation rate is achieved the council could recoup the £672,000 it needs to cover the collection costs for the service, while a 45% collection rate could net the council up to £1.08 million in income.
Home composting
The council is also keen to ensure that by moving away from a free service it does not increase the amount of garden waste that is disposed of by residents and is proposing to encourage householders to take up home composting if they are not keen to pay the annual subscription fee. The local authority is proposing not to collect any garden waste presented as ‘side waste’ by residents.
Commenting on the move councillor David Watson, portfolio holder for environment and housing at North East Lincolnshire council, said added: “We know people value the green waste collection service, but in the face of government imposed cuts of £76million it’s a service we can no longer afford to subsidise.
“We’ve made huge savings by sharing more services with other organisations and moving our workforce into fewer buildings, but we need to look at everything we do to make sure we balance the books in the future.”
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