Council leader defends annual waste charges
Campbell says £25 a year charge is ‘pretty good’ value
Perth and Kinross Council leader Ian Campbell has defended its reintroduction of an annual charge to take away household garden waste – insisting the service will provide “pretty good” value for money.
It comes as criticism of the policy continues to grow with more than 1300 people now having signed an online petition protesting the reintroduction of the rate as well as dozens more posting comments on the PA’s Facebook page under our reports relating to the scheme.
Councillor Campbell wrote to the PA pointing out the decision to bring back the charge, which will see every household have to pay the local authority £25 a year to have their brown-lidded bin emptied as of April, was taken by the council’s previous SNP administration, not his current Conservative one.
In his letter, which is published in full on our letters page in today’s paper, Cllr Campbell points out the local authority does not have a statutory duty to collect garden waste and says the cost of collecting it “is becoming more difficult to justify in light of continual budget cuts”.
“In fact the latest budget cut from the Scottish Government in December of around five per cent in real terms to PKC makes it highly unlikely that we could reverse this charge, if we wish to maintain the most vital and important services to our communities,” he insists.
Reacting to our recent coverage of the council’s award of a contract to print letters telling residents about the scheme, as well as permits for those expected to sign up, he also makes the point PKC had to put the contract to tender and accept the bid “which offers best value”.
The contract went to Londonbased commercial printers Euro Label Printers as it was the only company to actually bid for the work. It put the cost of printing the letters and permits at around £53,000.
Cllr Campbell concluded his letter by saying: “We anticipate that the majority of current customers of this service will sign up to continue.
“After all, I would say £25 is pretty good value to have your garden waste collected 26 times a year from your driveway, don’t you?”
As the PA went to press yesterday 1330 people had signed the ‘Stop P&K council charging us for the up-keep of their property!’ petition on the change.org website.
One critic writing on the PA’s Facebook page commented: “If P&K didn’t waste unnecessary money on stupid ridiculous things like coloured lights on their buildings they’d have more money.”
Another critic said of the contract award: “Excellent work PKC. Council tax payers paying £53k to be told to pay extra for what we are already paying for. You couldn’t make it up.”
Councillor Campbell’s letter is on page 19 of today’s paper.