Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Cost hike for purple sacks ‘ridiculous’
‘This is just another example of the council failing to listen to the needs of local people...’
A council decision to more than triple the cost of extra purple rubbish sacks for people without wheelie bins has been branded “frankly ridiculous”.
Canterbury City Council has hiked the price of the bags which are used to dispose of household waste - from £2.73 a roll to £9.23.
The authority says the move has been made to clamp down on people who have bins “taking advantage” of the system.
But Labour councillor Chris Cornell has blasted officials for raising prices during the current cost of living crisis.
The council gives the equivalent of two purple sacks per week for free to properties that cannot have a wheelie bin.
These are filled with rubbish that can’t be recycled, and left outside homes for collection.
Until recently, extra sacks could be picked up from local leisure centres for £2.73 per roll.
But under the new system, those needing additional purple sacks must order them from the council for £9.23.
Cllr Cornell said: “This is just another example of the council failing to listen to the needs of
local people.”
He says increasing the cost “is frankly ridiculous during a cost of living crisis and only going to disenfranchise people who will use black bin liners which then won’t be picked up”.
“The council forget that in in order to prevent our roads being full of rubbish they need to make bin collections as easy as possible,” he added. “This doesn’t do that at all.” But the city council has defended the move, saying the new price will help encourage
recycling and reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill. They added that the new price covers the cost of postage and packaging and does not result in profit.
Prior to extra purple sacks being available from leisure centres, people in eligible households had to contact waste contractor Serco, which would deliver them directly at a price of £21.20 a roll. When the council’s waste collection was taken in-house by its new company Canenco, the system was
changed and they were made available to anyone, from leisure centres.
City council spokesman Rob Davies said: “Our approach to waste collections is to encourage as much recycling as possible, and a key way of doing this is to restrict the amount of capacity people have for residual waste.
“We provide the equivalent of two sacks per week, free of charge, to these properties. This is roughly the same capacity as a household with a wheelie bin on a fortnightly collection, with
the aim of being as fair as possible to everybody in the district.
“For some months now, extra purple sacks have been available to buy from leisure centres, but unfortunately people have taken advantage of a system that was meant to give those who just needed an extra few sacks a bit of help.
“There has been no control over the number of people buying them, and people from non-purple sack properties have also been purchasing them.
“This has led to an increase in the number of sacks needing to be collected and generated extra residual waste.
“As a result, we have changed the arrangements, and additional purple sacks can now only be bought via our website. This is strictly for those on the authorised purple sack list only and is limited to one roll. The cost of a roll is £9.23 to cover the sacks, postage and delivery. We do not make a profit on this.
“We understand there is a suggestion that people have been buying them as a result of their delivery of sacks not arriving.
“Canenco is now delivering the sacks in a more routine quarterly way, and the second delivery will be completed by the end of May. In the event a property has been missed, residents are asked to contact Canenco on 01227 947860. People should not buy an extra roll in these circumstances.”