Garden waste charge is increasing to £40

THE garden waste collection provided by Charnwood Borough Council is increasing from £28 to £40, per year from May 1.

But the council says the service provides excellent value for money and it plans to freeze the cost for the next two years.

The council says the charge is in line with many other authorities and the increase is necessary to make up for a shortfall of funding from other sources and ensure the quality of service is maintained.

Coun Leigh Harper-Davies, lead member for the performance of major contracts, said: “The garden waste scheme is a high-quality service and an extremely popular one with over 34,000 subscriptions.

“However, in order to maintain that quality and make up for shortfalls in our funding, we believe it necessary to increase the charge.

“We accept the increase for 2018 is larger than in previous years but these are challenging times for local government funding.

“In 2015 we lost a significant amount of funding when the county council withdrew recycling credits worth around £300,000 a year which was used to help cover the costs of the service.

“We’ve had to increase the charge since then to help make up that shortfall and cover increases in the costs of providing the service.

“There are further challenges ahead as recycling credits which contribute to the general house- hold recycling service are being withdrawn by the county council this year, a loss of £500,000 to the borough council. Despite this we will still offer free bulky waste collections to Charnwood residents while many other authorities charge £15 or more.

“And while we are fortunate to be very financially stable, we need to manage our finances carefully and sensibly.

“Garden waste collection is not a service we have to provide, nor do people have to subscribe, but we do believe it is an excellent service, value for money and one people want.”

The new charge will come into effect on May 1 so anyone subscribing for the first time before then can take advantage of the existing charge of £28. Existing subscribers will be informed directly about the new charge two weeks before their subscription ends. To sign up for the garden waste service, visit www.charnwood.gov.uk/gardenwaste