You may soon pay for garden bin collection
DALES District Council is proposing to charge for removing garden rubbish – and stretching fortnightly collections to three weeks.
Councillors will vote on the plan at a special meeting on November 29. Officers are recommending that weekly food waste collections continue, with collections every two weeks of dry recycling and household waste that can’t be recycled or composted.
But a charge – which hasn’t been specified – will also be introduced for fortnightly removal of garden waste.
They will also be asking bidders for the next contract to factor in moving household waste collections from two weeks to three by 2023 – although a spokesperson has stressed this decision won’t be taken for six years.
A report to the meeting reads: “The free garden waste service will be discontinued and a chargeable garden waste service will be introduced as a requirement of the service.
“Further work is required to consider how the change from a free to a chargeable service can be introduced, as well as the timeframe for the change. The level of the annual charge should not be decided until overall financial costings of the contract are made clear.”
The council has blamed Government cuts of £611,000 in 2018-19 and a much more “buoyant” market when the current contract was agreed in 2012. The level of central grant the authority receives will have been reduced from £3.5m in 2013-14 to £0.5m by 2020-21, meaning the council has to find further savings of £700,000 over the next three years.
Derbyshire Dales council leader Lewis Rose said: “The three-weekly collection variation has been included on the recommendation of our consultants and it is important to stress that any decision of that nature would only be taken by the council elected in 2023 and not the one elected next year.
“The future of waste and recycling collections is one of the most significant matters we have considered in recent years and the importance of this service to the people we serve has been clearly demonstrated by the record-breaking public response to our consultation.”