Tips set to charge fee for DIY waste
CASH- STRAPPED council chiefs are to start charging residents to use public tips for DIY waste.
Under the changes Tory-led Cheshire East Council will start making residents pay to get rid of rubble such as bricks, paving slabs and bathroom tiles from their homes and gardens.
The charges range from £7 for every 100kg to £50 for every tonne and could make the council hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.
But Labour councillor nick Mannion fears the move will increase fly-tipping.
He said: “I have serious concerns. We risk undoing the belated progress we are making in tackling flytipping, as the introduction of charges will temps some residents to resort to dumping rubble created by DIY home improvements and landscaping their gardens.
“The costs of then col- lecting and safely disposing this rubble by the council will probably wipe-out most of the income collected by those that pay the charges.”
The proposals – part of a raft of changes to its nine household waste and recycling centres including Macclesfield, Bollington and Poynton – could be introduced as early as 2018.
The move is part of the authority’s desperate effort to plug a £100m budget black hole over the next three years.
Other ideas include new charges to small construction firms to deposit their waste and cutting opening times at all tips from 8am8pm to 8.30am-5pm in the summer and 8am-4pm to 8.30am-4pm in winter.
The council has launched a consultation until January 10 on four proposals which could save up to £1m a year.
One of these proposals includes closing Poynton tip but this is not the council’s preferred option.
The council argues that charging to dump rubble is already done by several local authorities including Staffordshire, where the move triggered fear among some councillors of an increase of fly-tipping.
Cheshire East said part of the money it makes through the new charges will go towards hiring two additional enforcement officers to counter fly-tipping.
In consultation documents, which are available on the council’s website, Cheshire East said: “The council is currently conducting a budget consultation on how these financial challenges will be met.
“A Council Tax increase up to 3.99 percent will account for £45.1 million of the required savings, leaving a further £49 million of savings required from service efficiencies.
“The Household Waste Recycling Centre service is expected, like most other Cheshire East Council services, to contribute towards these savings.
“The way the service might make these savings is what this consultation is about.
“The alternative to the Household Waste Recycling Centre Service contributing towards the overall savings is that other services would have to make extra savings on top of ones they already may need to make.”