Charges planned for green garden waste bins
Barnet Council is asking for the views of residents on plans to introduce an annual charge for the fortnightly collection of household garden waste.
If the charge is agreed – saving the council £700,000 a year – only green bins with a special sticker will continue to be collected.
Residents have until November 22 to complete an online questionnaire and the findings of the consultation will be considered by the council’s environment committee.
In explaining the reasons why a charge is needed the council says the free collection of garden waste is not a legal requirement and is currently an opt-in service that is used by only 58 per cent of street-level properties across the borough.
The introduction of charges had the potential to deliver savings in excess of £700,000 a year and would enable the council to continue weekly waste collections.
“Introducing a charge to residents who wish to continue to benefit from the collection of garden waste will provide a fairer balance to residents that live in properties that don’t require garden waste collections.
Residents who choose … the service will be charged an annual subscription fee
“Many UK local authorities have already introduced a charge for this service.”
“We know that people value the garden waste collection service and we are asking residents to give us their views.”
If charges were introduced, the service would operate on the same basis, with fortnightly collections, of the 240-litre green garden waste bins.
Residents who choose to opt in to continue receiving the service will be charged an annual subscription fee for up to 23 collections a year.
Payment will be made online via the council’s website and householders who sign up will be issued with a coloured sticker to identify a bin that has opted into the service.
Black refuse bins that contain garden waste will not be collected.
To take part in the online questionnaire, see https://engage.barnet.gov.uk/garden-waste-charging-2019
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I have just read (26 Nov) on the Barnet Society web site that there was an online consultation questionnaire for views on an annual charge for household garden waste. However that questionnaire is now closed for Barnet residents??
Where was the details of this questionnaire posted as nothing has appeared in the local papers or on the recent council letter advising us that garden bin collections were now over for this year. A document where i would have expected to see such a statement.
What is the proposed price for continuing this ‘free’ service going to be and how will the council protect bins that residents have paid for from being stolen or used by others who have not agreed to the additional charges on their rates?
Will the additional costs for clearing up fly tipping garden waste be added to our rates or will the council sub contract this out to another organisation as it has done with so many other ‘local’ services?
Perhaps LBB should not have returned that 1% of Council Tax all those ago. Added together over the years it would have amounted to a useful on-going sum. As it is, try cutting “Barnet First” – largely propaganda. LBB failure to sweep streets and clear drains sufficiently regularly means I as an 80 year old citizen have to sweep our frontage and the gutter opposite to prevent flooding.. These sweepings go into green bin, sometimes half-filling it, before we put in our garden waste. (Can I charge to off-set the proposed bin charge!) What about re-cycling? Are we to have more bonfires? Rotting piles to attract vermin? Don’t LBB get money for selling waste to make compost?
It is surely a principle of local taxation that we pay contributions for the general benefit and do not pick and choose which services we will pay for.
I’m still waiting for their promised proposals for a replacement food-waste collection service. My brown caddy is sitting patiently waiting to be put back into service. If they’re going to start charging for services that aren’t used by everyone, there’s no end to what could be added to the list – or what some residents might agitate to be excused from paying for.
There we go Barnet council is at it again..
This is outrageous and will only encourage even more fly tipping. BUT it just goes to show how stretched the council budget is. Funding from central government has been reduced to the point that local councils can only afford the bare essential services. Whatever you think about the council, no one works there for the money or to line their pockets, sad times.
This will just encourage people to not maintain their gardens or even worse concrete over them and fly tip their garden waste. Not exactly environmentally friendly or cost effective is it. Makes my blood boil hitting people in the pocket especially those who are already struggling. I feel sorry for the old folk for who a bit snipping in the garden is a pleasure they now have to pay for. Remind me what exactly do we pay council tax for?
So what happens if your green bin gets stolen