Householders face £25 charge to empty bins

A £25 annual charge would be levied against householders for garden waste collections in an unprecedented tax being considered by city council chiefs in Edinburgh.

The proposal would reap an extra £1.3 million in revenue for council coffers as savings are desperately sought for next year’s budget.

All bin collections have previously been covered by council tax.

Edinburgh Leisure’s budget would also be slashed by £420,000 under other proposals.

Thousands of householders across Edinburgh are set to be billed £25 a year for garden waste collections as part of a plan by the city council to find savings of £21 million in next year’s budget.

Other proposals include a cut of £420,000 in the budget of Edinburgh Leisure and more fines for motorists driving in bus lanes to bring in a further £200,000.

Finance convener Alasdair Rankin said the council tax would also need to go up by 3 per cent and there could be more than 100 job losses.

The council will not know how much funding it is to get from the Scottish Government until mid-december, but officials are working on the assumption of a 3 per cent cut.

A report to councillors warned bigger cuts will also be needed in future years, with the savings for 2018-19 best viewed as “a first step on a longer journey” that is likely to add up to a budget reduction of £151m over the next five years.

The proposed £25 annual charge for garden waste collections would reap an extra £1.3m in revenue.

Similar levies have previously sparked protests in Oxford, Nottinghamshire and London, with the move likely to fuel concerns over the potential for charges for other bin collection services.

Mr Rankin said: “Collecting waste is a statutory collection for the council, but garden waste isn’t.”

He said the service would be increased to every two weeks instead of three weeks.

“Some people may choose to do other things, like take their garden waste to a recycling point or compost more, so if we start to charge we may not get the same number of people using the service,” he said.

Mr Rankin acknowledged plans to charge for a service previously offered for free would cause “a great deal of interest”.

He said: “We will see what people’s reaction to that is. Sometimes we’ve put forward proposals and people have reacted very strongly to them and we’ve said we will change that.”

Edinburgh Leisure would not only see its budget cut by £420,000, but the council’s arms-length company would also be charged £375,000 for ground maintenance carried out by the council under mooted plans.

Two years ago, Edinburgh Leisure chiefs warned swimming pools and sports venues were at risk because of budget cuts, but the council insisted there would be no closures.

On the impact the proposed reductions might have, the council said its “aspiration” was the cut would have no impact on Edinburgh Leisure’s ability to keep facilities open.