New rule starts on June 1

Householders in West Lothian can now purchase garden waste permits.

From June 1, if you would like the council to collect your garden waste from your home, you need to purchase and display a garden waste permit on your brown bin.

If you do not have a garden waste permit displayed, only food waste should be placed in your brown bin.

If garden waste is placed in your brown bin and you do not have a permit displayed, your bin will not be emptied.

Permits cost £50 per household and will be valid from June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025.

West Lothian Council says it’s being forced to reduce spending and change a wide range of non- statutory services due to insufficient funding being provided by the Scottish Government, combined with increasing costs.

Non-statutory services are services which councils are not legally obliged to provide. Currently, garden waste collection is not a statutory service and some councils do not provide any garden collection.

The move to introduce a chargeable garden waste service will generate additional net income of around £1.15 million. This income will go towards the cost of providing the garden waste collection service.

Leader of West Lothian Council Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “After many years of sustained cuts to our budget, the options available to the council are now very limited in terms of reducing services to cut costs, and that is why the majority of councils already have similar charging schemes.

“Falkirk, for example, introduced a garden waste charging scheme last year.

“We’ve faced significant budget reductions since 2007 and introducing garden waste charges is a proposal that we’ve managed to avoid charging thus far.

“However, Operational Services – which provides vital services such as roads, paths, parks, recycling centres, waste and recycling – cannot sustain further cuts.

It is inevitable that local services will change given the lack of funding being provided to us by the Scottish Government. Lawrence Fitzpatrick

“We don’t believe that is what local residents want, either. Without increasing income via charging, the only option available is to look at reducing services further and we don’t want that. We want to protect services and protect jobs.

“It is inevitable that local services will change given the lack of funding being provided to us by the Scottish Government.

“We know that half of Scottish councils already charge for garden waste and I suspect that this number may increase, as all councils have budget savings to make and limited ways to make them.”

Residents can purchase their Garden Waste Permit and read a list of Frequently Asked Questions at: www.westlothian. gov.uk/brownbins