£26 green bin collection plan

9:33am Monday 14th January 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Dan Bean, dan.bean@thepress.co.uk

RESIDENTS in the Selby district are set to be charged extra to have their green waste collected under new plans going before councillors.

District council officials want to introduce a charge of £26 per household a year to help them save £442,000 a year.

It had earlier been suggested that charges could be as high as £82 a year if only a few households signed up for the collections, but officials believe 17,000 homes across the district will pay for the collections if they charge £26.

The removal of green bins currently costs the council about £536,000 a year. Touncil’s policy review committee last year considered a report looking at charging options which said the charge would have to rise or fall depending on how few or how many households signed up.

The report said the council had already saved about £2.9 million, but said “it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve further savings on a reducing cost base”.

A new report will now go before the council’s policy review committee tomorrow recommending a public consultation on the proposals.

Suggestions will include a subscription with no concessions, no part-year discount, a full charge regardless of how full the bin is, and a maximum charge of £26 for the first year, regardless of how many residents sign up.

City of York Council said last year it too was looking at charging for green bin collections. The issue was originally due to be discussed last September but has been postponed until next month.

Comments(22)

anti-rant says...
10:28am Mon 14 Jan 13

Into the black bin goes the cuttings.

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Boadicea says...
10:35am Mon 14 Jan 13

£26 is very reasonable.

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goodfellow says...
10:46am Mon 14 Jan 13

Wont coast me a penny as I will not opt in, compost or Black bin- this daft idea will cost the council in the long run as more people opt out the cost to those daft enough to pay goes up. Having looked at the committee papers I cannot see ant firm evidence that 17,000 homes will pay that’s almost a 50% take up . i have yet to talk to anyone who will sign up to this mad scheme- if they want to save money just scrap the whole scheme.

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bloodaxe says...
11:06am Mon 14 Jan 13

Coming soon to a layby near you - yet more trash.

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BioLogic says...
11:14am Mon 14 Jan 13

bloodaxe wrote:
Coming soon to a layby near you - yet more trash.
Bloodaxe is spot on, cue a huge rise in fly tipping of garden waste, garden waste in street bins and garden waste in black bins. SDC get paid for the green waste they collect. They should be ashamed of themselves for suggesting more charges on residents instead of better cost control.

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capt spaulding says...
11:20am Mon 14 Jan 13

bloodaxe wrote:
Coming soon to a layby near you - yet more trash.
And a farmers gateway.
Can anyone recommend any?.

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myselby says...
12:27pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Could they not save money by not collecting the green waste during the winter months ?

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timcore says...
12:31pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Surely this should be covered by residents' council tax payments?

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tobefair says...
12:43pm Mon 14 Jan 13

How will they differentiate between households that have paid and those that haven't?

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clm058 says...
1:37pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Us fools will pay it, anyway i thought it was already paid for in your council tax we will just accept it like on any issue be it local or national or interntional we all just shut and put with it, brings back memories of pre 1990 eastern europe :)
You will do as we say we are the law.

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tribolman says...
2:31pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Here is a much more economical way for us hard pressed Council tax cash cows. Namely ourselves.

Simply do away with the payments for Councillors instead. They used to do a Councillor's job out of the goodness of their hearts a few years back.

We have 41 councillors in the Selby District.

Whjen they started to get paid it was £18,000 per annum +expenses, if I remember correctly.

Now 41 x £18000 = £738, 000 per annum,without increases.

Now take away £563, 000, mentioned above and we save another £175,000 per annum extra

As a Meerkat would say, SIMPLES.

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baldiebiker says...
2:42pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Boadicea wrote:
£26 is very reasonable.
so that's you continuing to use the green bin by paying twice, as you already pay for the service, so what are the council going to do when they have to collect the other 16,999 green bins,that people won't need, have they thought about that.
I'm not paying twice for a service that I can do without.

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tribolman says...
3:06pm Mon 14 Jan 13

clm058 says...
1:37pm Mon 14 Jan 13
Us fools will pay it, anyway i thought it was already paid for in your council tax we will just accept it like on any issue be it local or national or interntional we all just shut and put with it, brings back memories of pre 1990 eastern europe :)
You will do as we say we are the law.



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It is already included in the poll tax.

This is a tax upon a tax, unless they reduced the Council Tax bills to cover the cutting out of the green bin collections (very unlikely).

We should all pester our MP on this matter.

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baldiebiker says...
3:08pm Mon 14 Jan 13

If "we" already pay the £536,000 it costs to collect the green bins, will this money be refunded to us?
I'm starting to wonder if what the council is planing to do is even legal, If a private waste operator charged you twice for the same service I think they would be prosecuted for fraud.

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yorkshirelad says...
4:06pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Isn't the council between a rock and a hard place? Cuts in funding from central government mean that service spending will have to reduce. This seems like a reasonable idea.

It's not rocket science to have a compost heap...if in doubt just bung it all in a pile and it eventually goes away!

If we all get steamed up we'll simply pay more in the end via the council tax...leave it in the green bin and the landfill taxes will come back to bite us, dumping it is antisocial and illegal.

A charge for green bin seems reasonable...then those of us that compost can save the charge.

I sometimes think we're getting a bit spoilt ranting and raving over these little changes when in reality the council have little choice.

I wonder how many people complaining voted for the coalition parties?

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bob the builder says...
4:50pm Mon 14 Jan 13

myselby wrote:
Could they not save money by not collecting the green waste during the winter months ?
York tries that, they forget seasonality, leaves drop into December, and you cut back shrubs and trees in the dormant season, Dec-Jan ergo there is still green waste.

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bob the builder says...
4:51pm Mon 14 Jan 13

yorkshirelad wrote:
Isn't the council between a rock and a hard place? Cuts in funding from central government mean that service spending will have to reduce. This seems like a reasonable idea.

It's not rocket science to have a compost heap...if in doubt just bung it all in a pile and it eventually goes away!

If we all get steamed up we'll simply pay more in the end via the council tax...leave it in the green bin and the landfill taxes will come back to bite us, dumping it is antisocial and illegal.

A charge for green bin seems reasonable...then those of us that compost can save the charge.

I sometimes think we're getting a bit spoilt ranting and raving over these little changes when in reality the council have little choice.

I wonder how many people complaining voted for the coalition parties?
Here in York I don't vote, my choices were Labour, Conservative or LibDem - I'd have voted for anyone else just to cast a protest vote but no one stands.

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bob the builder says...
4:54pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Boadicea wrote:
£26 is very reasonable.
It could be done for less, but people put all sorts of uncompostable waste in like plantpots, animal remains, nappies etc, so it needs sorting adding extra costs in. It would be fairer to charge for landfill waste that's got the tax on it.

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tribolman says...
6:40pm Mon 14 Jan 13

There is another choice, take your cuttings etc down to the Selby Amenity Site on Canal Road, when you go shopping in Selby.

They don't charge you and may even help you put the cuttings in the skip if you ask

Mine that only works if you have a few black bin bags and of course a vehicle to carry these in to the skip.

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Dawnshine says...
10:03pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Council tax is for waste collection, we only get our bins collected fortnightly alternating each week so it is affordable for the council. I will never accept paying more for no increase in service and to add the fact they can even cut services without cutting what we pay towards it is absolutely discusting so the idea of charges on top of taxes, they can all jump off a cliff. If they can't handle our budgets designed to manage OUR local needs them those people should be fired for more capable staff.

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Dawnshine says...
10:05pm Mon 14 Jan 13

Council tax is for waste collection, we only get our bins collected fortnightly alternating each week so it is affordable for the council. I will never accept paying more for no increase in service and to add the fact they can even cut services without cutting what we pay towards it is absolutely disgusting so the idea of charges on top of taxes, they can all jump off a cliff. If they can't handle our budgets designed to manage OUR local needs them those people should be fired for more capable staff.

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selbyville says...
10:08pm Wed 16 Jan 13

BioLogic wrote:
bloodaxe wrote:
Coming soon to a layby near you - yet more trash.
Bloodaxe is spot on, cue a huge rise in fly tipping of garden waste, garden waste in street bins and garden waste in black bins. SDC get paid for the green waste they collect. They should be ashamed of themselves for suggesting more charges on residents instead of better cost control.
Councils dont get paid for the green waste - they have to pay the farms to compost it.

Central Govt keeps slashing the amount of money Councils get so they have to do something to make up the shortfall. I wonder what services people would be prepared to do without so they can keep getting their garden waste collected every 2 weeks?

And what did everyone do before the Council started collecting this waste a few years ago? I don't remember grass cutting littering every highway around the district back then.

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