Anger at £25 council fee for garden waste

GREEN-FINGERED householders are in revolt over council plans to charge £25 for collecting garden waste.

Cash-strapped Perth and Kinross Council will bring in the yearly brown bin fee from April.

Taxpayers looking to bin grass cuttings, hedge clippings or other garden waste will have to apply for the £25 permit.

Fortnightly waste crews are expected to police the new system and collect garden recycling only from bins with the permit displayed on it.

Garden waste has been uplifted at no extra cost since 2004.

Some have estimated the new levy will raise around £840,000 for the local authority, currently under pressure to cut £55million over the next five years.

Last year, Perth and Kinross Council approved a 2 per cent hike in council tax. The decision cost those in Band D properties an extra £23.

Many taxpayers are now asking why they are to be charged almost the same again for a service that until now was covered by their council tax bill.

Some 1,300 people took to social media to voice their anger at the council.

Kenneth Bruce said: ‘What’s next if they get away with this, the blue bins and the green bins? P&K Council have lost the plot!’

Scott Wilson added: ‘This is a joke. I pay over £200 a month and roads and paths outside my house don’t get gritted!’

Jane Lindsay said: ‘We are being penalised because we keep our gardens tidy, it’s a disgrace, start imposing fines on those whose gardens are full of rubbish, unkempt and dumping grounds for old cars and furniture.’

The council has told perplexed residents its statutory duties to collect household waste do not extend to that generated by the garden.

Bosses also say the income will offset the cost of collecting and processing garden waste and safeguard the future of kerbside garden waste collections.

Further, they have said garden waste can be dropped off free of charge at council recycling centres.

Perth and Kinross Council says the estimated £840,000 of extra income is based on the assumption that 50 per cent of those currently using the garden refuse service will be willing to pay for it.

A spokesman said: ‘It was agreed that a chargeable garden waste service will be reintroduced. The service will only be available to households who currently receive a brown bin service.’