Residents revolt over green waste bin charges

Cheshire East Council’s latest money raising scheme – paid for green waste collections – has hit resistance.

One Macclesfield resident, Dave Roberts, wrote to the Chief Executive, Lorraine O’Donnell, seeking answers to a number of questions.

Mr Roberts wrote:

“I am writing to you to raise serious concerns about charging residents for the collection of green bins starting January 2024.

“I have a number of questions/comments – these are as follows:

·      Charging for green bin collection has not been presented to residents for review and comment.

·      How will CEC manage the collection of the tax; it can’t be a blanket tax as many houses don’t have a garden! If the tax collection relies on folk signing up, additional staff will be required to implement and mange this activity – this is additional cost for CEC.

·      While the cost is relatively small – how can CEC justify an increased charge given the cost of living crisis folk are experiencing?

·      I have checked other councils (Derbyshire County Council as an example) and many do not charge for green bin collections.

·      As a Tytherington resident, an option for me would be to take my garden waste to the Bollington tip – unfortunately that is being closed so I will have to cross Macclesfield to get to the Congleton road tip.
This is not an easy option as the centre of Macclesfield is very congested. The only answer for Tytherington, Hurdsfield & surrounding areas is to keep the Bollington tip open.

·      As an aside, if I were to take my garden waste to the tip, would I be expected to pay a fee similar to the charges for rubble?

·      What will residents do with the food waste that currently goes in their green bins? I suspect they will put them (and garden waste?) in their black bin(s).

·       Inevitably imposing charges for bin collection will increase fly tipping – how will CEC do to stop this?

·      Even though the green bin collections will fall, all collection routes will need to be retained so there are no cost savings in terms of staff and equipment.

·      Residents already pay for green bin collection, so why are we expected to pay twice? This is fundamentally WRONG. 

“The initiative is clearly a way to raise revenues – I gather CEC has serious financial problems so are these funds being used to address this? 

“From what I gather they won’t go anywhere near the amount required to remove the deficit! 

“I’m sorry but my first question is, how on earth did these serious financial problems occur? The CEC finance department is a disgrace – they should have raised the issue before it became so bad!!

“Secondly, services are deteriorating eg road maintenance – so where are the funds going?

“Finally, have you considered ways to reduce expenditure, for example, using council staff to do tasks rather than using sub-contractors which are much more expensive?”

The Head of Environmental Services, Ralph Kemp, responded with the following:

“Dear Mr Roberts,
Re: Garden Waste Subscription

“Thank you for your correspondence regarding the garden waste subscription. Your email has been passed to me by our Chief Executive, Lorraine O’Donnell, for response.

“Your views and concerns are appreciated. Following public consultation, on 22 February 2023, the council agreed its medium-term financial strategy for 2023/24 to 2026/27, which contains the agreed proposal to introduce a subscription service for the collection of green waste in Cheshire East. On 27 July 2023, the council’s environment and communities committee approved the implementation details of the scheme. Other council’s have different criteria for their charges for garden waste collection, many councils do charge.

“Residents will only pay for the service if they opt-in to the scheme and it remains free for residents to dispose of their garden waste at our household waste recycling centres.

“With regards to the charge for the garden waste subscription Cheshire East has adopted it’s charge from the additional garden bin charge that was in place.

“When carrying out research on charging we found that 65% of collection authorities charge for waste, Derbyshire County Council do not charge as they are the disposal authority, the collection authorities will be the ones that charge such as Derbyshire Dales District Council.

“With regards to the Bollington tip, as part of the planned consultation, the public will be asked for their views on three core options. One option is to close Poynton which has the smallest percentage of users. A mobile household waste collection would be introduced instead. The second option is to keep the sites at Crewe, Macclesfield, Alsager and Knutsford open, and to introducing a mobile household waste service. and the third option is to retain services as they are and invest in the sites.

“There have been no decisions made at this stage.

“Garden waste will remain free to dispose of at the HWRCs

“Residents may chose to continue to place food waste into their garden bin, but there has also been an announcement by Central Government with regards to implementing a weekly food waste collection.

“After speaking to other councils that have introduced similar schemes, they have not seen an increase in fly-tipping. Importantly, fly-tipping is a crime, and anyone caught doing it could be prosecuted and face a large fine.

“We acknowledge that collection schedules and crews will not change – this option when put forward was not to generate savings so was not a consideration. Resident can chose to sign up through out the year, keeping the current collection rounds would allow for this with minimal administrative costs.

“The current garden waste collections have never been included as part of the Council Tax bill and as such your Council Tax will not be reduced now that there is a subscription to pay for your garden waste collection. 

“The Council Tax you pay is based on the Valuation Band of your property. The payments you make are a tax that contributes towards the costs of all council services, rather than a direct payment for an individual service such as garden waste collection.

“Apologies for the length of the reply I hope the above points have addressed your concerns raised.
Yours sincerely
Ralph Kemp
Head of Environmental Services”

Mr Roberts, makes the following points:

The response from Mr Kemp only addresses a small number of my questions/concerns but sadly it doesn’t address all of them and some are pivotal. These are as follows:

“Following public consultation, on 22 February 2023, the council agreed its medium-term financial strategy for 2023/24 to 2026/27, which contains the agreed proposal to introduce a subscription service for the collection of green waste in Cheshire East. On 27 July 2023, the council’s environment and communities committee approved the implementation details of the scheme. Other council’s have different criteria for their charges for garden waste collection, but many councils do charge.”

Q. Can you clarify how the decision to charge for green bin collection was presented to Council taxpayers?

“Residents will only pay for the service if they opt-in to the scheme and it remains free for residents to dispose of their garden waste at our household waste recycling centres.”

Q. My comments regarding the possibility of Bollington HWRC closure are relevant to this comment.

“When carrying out research on charging we found that 65% of collection authorities charge for waste, Derbyshire County Council do not charge as they are the disposal authority, the collection authorities will be the ones that charge such as Derbyshire Dales District Council.”

Q. Can you clarify whether they charge for green bin collection via their council tax or a separate charge similar to the one CEC is implementing?

“With regards to the Bollington tip, as part of the planned consultation, the public will be asked for their views on three core options. One option is to close Poynton which has the smallest percentage of users.”

My comments regarding the possibility of Bollington HWRC closure are relevant to this comment.

“A mobile household waste collection would be introduced instead.”

Q. How can you justify this additional service?
Q. How would this be managed and monitored?
Q. Would households be charged for this service?

“The second option is to keep the sites at Crewe, Macclesfield, Alsager and Knutsford open, and to introducing a mobile household waste service. and the third option is to retain services as they are and invest in the sites.”

The best option for households and the environment is to proceed with option 3.
Q. Can you clarify what the investment is required for?

“Residents may chose to continue to place food waste into their garden bin, but there has also been an announcement by Central Government with regards to implementing a weekly food waste collection.”

Q. If the household opts out of the green bin collection, where do they dispose of their food waste  – this needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
A weekly service makes sense given that food waste deteriorates rapidly and smells when ambient temperatures rise.
Q. How will CEC adopt this Government initiative especially if councils cannot impose charges for this service?

Fly-tipping
I’m sorry but fly-tipping does happen and and will no doubt get worse if the green bin initiative proceeds.
Q. Can you clarify how many individuals have been caught fly-tipping?
 

“The current garden waste collections have never been included as part of the Council Tax bill and as such your Council Tax will not be reduced now that there is a subscription to pay for your garden waste collection.”

Q. Can you clarify where the funds are obtained from if they are not part of the Council Tax bill? 

“The payments you make are a tax that contributes towards the costs of all council services, rather than a direct payment for an individual service such as garden waste collection.”

I’m sorry I don’t understand this statement.

ilovemacc understands that compost made by Cheshire East, from green waste collections, provides an additional income stream. Surely any reduction in green waste collections has to have a negative impact on that income stream and any potential gains for the Council?

Do other Macclesfield residents have comments to make?

Write to editor@ilovemacc.com with your thoughts.