Fly-tipping fears over new garden waste fee
Planning for the introduction of a £40 garden waste permit is under way – as councillors warn the charge could cause a rise in fly-tipping in Renfrewshire.
The scheme formed part of the SNP administration’s budget a fortnight ago and has been met with concern among opposition elected members.
They questioned Gordon McNeil, the council’s director of environment and infrastructure, on various issues that could arise during the rollout.
The discussion covered areas such as uptake, grass-cuttings being disposed of in the wrong bin and an increase in illegal dumping.
Councillor Chris Gilmour, Labour group environment spokesperson, branded the brown bin the “hot potato” of the moment.
“If there is a void, somebody will fill it,” he told Wednesday’s infrastructure, land and environment policy board.
“The questions I’ve been asked since this has been announced, only two weeks ago, are, how are they going to manage it?
“Can I opt in, can I opt out? Will I secure my bins – say my bin gets stolen?
“What about fly-tipping? How are we going to deal with that?
“I know in the last service change there was a very comprehensive and inclusive programme, so I’d encourage that. Those are all the questions rattling about.
“How are we going to manage waste when people are dumping grass cuttings in their grey bin?
“That’s then going into a load and contaminating that load of waste. How are we going to manage those issues?”
Mr McNeil reassured elected members they would be kept in the loop as these topics are addressed.
He said: “[There are] a lot of good questions there and that’s one of the reasons why, obviously with the budget being less than two weeks ago, we’re just working through the implementation and communication.
“Again, just to confirm the assurance that we’ll give all elected members as we start to launch.
“Obviously those questions there are some of the ones that we are planning for and we’ll make sure other ones you’ve raised there that we’re able to discuss this with elected members.”
The worry about a potential surge in illegal dumping as a consequence of the scheme was shared by others in the chambers.
Conservative councillor James MacLaren said: “Like Councillor Gilmour, I’m concerned that we’ll see more fly-tipping in the future over this new brown bin charge, but obviously we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Councillor Iain McMillan, Labour group leader, said: “Since it was agreed two weeks ago at the budget meeting, I’ve been inundated with people speaking to me about it in the streets and in various places that I go.
“It’s not very popular. I know change is not very popular at all and getting charged for something that you previously enjoyed for free is not very popular either.
“But I share the concerns of Councillor Gilmour, how it’s going to practically work and how many people are actually going to take it up.
“Living in a semi-rural area myself, I know where some of the grass-cutting is going to go and it’s not going to go in the brown bin.
“Again we’ll just wait and see how that develops over the coming weeks and months, particularly as the summer months are fast approaching.”
I’m concerned we’ll see more fly-tipping in the future over this new brown bin charge