Hike in garden waste bin charges nets Council an extra £38,000

A hike in charges for collecting garden waste bins has netted Flintshire Council an extra £38,000, it’s been revealed.

Residents living in the county previously had to pay an annual fee of £30 to have their brown bins collected after the local authority stopped offering the service for free in April 2018.

That amount was increased to either £32 or £35 for depending on payment methods for 2020 following a review of fees approved by members of the Labour-run cabinet last year.

Newly released figures show 19,000 people have signed up so far for this year’s collections with all paying £32 as part of an early bird incentive.

It has generated an income of more than £600,000, which a senior officer said included £38,000 from the additional £2 charge.

In a report, Steve Jones, chief officer for streetscene and transportation, said: “In July 2019, as part of the annual fees and charges review, the charge for the collection service was increased and a new tag system has been implemented to identify those bins registered to the service.

“Compared with previous years’ trend analysis, the service has seen applications submitted throughout the year, up until the end of the collection season.

“However, for comparison purposes, to date there have been in excess of 5,000 more applications this season than at the same time in the 2019 season.

“The financial benefit from the charge will provide full cost recovery against the cost of delivering the service.”

In the first year of the subscriptions, 33,871 permits were sold generating an income of more than £1m.

By 2019 this had reduced to 32,564 permits and payments totalling £976,000.

The move to increase fees for this year previously attracted opposition from other political groups.

But officers said the changes were needed to meet the rising cost of providing the service.

Overall the rise is expected to make the council an additional sum of between £70,000 and £130,000.

Explaining the new tag-based system, Mr Jones added: “For the 2020 season, a tag system is being used instead of a sticker to identify those properties subscribed to the scheme.

“The tag will be fixed to the handle of the brown bin by the resident and must be clearly visible to the collection crew.

“Tags are being sent directly to residents along with instructions of how and where to attach them to the brown bin.”

Members of the authority’s environment scrutiny committee will examine the changes at a meet being held on Tuesday .

Liam Randall – Local Democracy Reporter (more here).