Charged for garden waste

estebanrey said:
As I said above, waste collection is a tiny fraction of your Council Tax. Most of it goes on social care/housing.

Less than a £1 a week of your Council Tax is used for collecting your bins. So why are you moaning about that and not the other £30 odd quid?

Also as I said, a private company charges around £10 per collection so how is £30-£50 a year in any way greedy?
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These pounds add up, oh sorry i don't pay enough council tax or income tax for your liking, you want me to pay more is that it.
 
LeeUK said:
If it only costs £1 a week then surely they can find that from the already over inflated amount of council tax paid?
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They can, if you're happy with them spending less on social care.

"Sorry Mrs Smith, we're going to have to sack your carer because we need that money so a minority of residents can have free garden waste collections"

By the way that is a pound a week PER household, it doesn't cost the council a quid a week to clear the entire city/town of waste.
 
Spook187 said:
These pounds add up, oh sorry i don't pay enough council tax or income tax for your liking, you want me to pay more is that it.
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I don't want you to pay more, just realise that what you pay is not proportional to the services you use. This is the problem, bin collections are one of the most visible services and used by all and many people therefore ignorantly think that their council tax is only going towards the things they personally benefit from when like any other tax it isn't.

It simply boils down to what individuals should pay for the benefit of society versus what they should pay for that only benefit them. Some councils, like mine, decided that given it is an urban authority and keen gardeners are the minority it isn't fair that everyone else should have to pay for a service only they need.
 
estebanrey said:
I don't want you to pay more, just realise that what you pay is not proportional to the services you use. This is the problem, bin collections are one of the most visible services and used by all and many people therefore ignorantly think that their council tax is only going towards the things they personally benefit from when like any other tax it isn't.

It simply boils down to what individuals should pay for the benefit of society versus what they should pay for that only benefit them. Some councils, like mine, decided that given it is an urban authority and keen gardeners are the minority it isn't fair that everyone else should have to pay for a service only they need.
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Yes of course, i knew that only a small part of the money went into refuse collections i respect that, but like i said all these pounds from each household adds up.
 
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Spook187 said:
Yes of course, i knew that only a small part of the money went into refuse collections i respect that, but like i said all these pounds from each household adds up.
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Yes but that supports what I'm trying to say because they only 'add up' in terms of the council's collection costs but not for you as an individual.

Let me explain using some admittedly fag packet maths and what I know from the Authority I work for. It costs our tax payers around £1 a week each for their collections (it's actually closer to 90p but for ease of maths and continuity we'll stick with a quid) and that gets you two collections a week. Food waste (which is collected weekly here) and either your recycling or general waste bin (which are fortnightly).

So then you are paying 50p a week for each waste type to be collected. To include a free Garden Waste as well we would therefore be £1.50 a week from each household. There are roughly 60,000 CT eligible households in my authority so that means the council would be spending £30,000 a week more for the whole service.

So whilst it's only a 50p shift for you, it is a much bigger one for us. That's more than a carer's annual salary every week just to provide a free service that not everyone requires and let's be honest is a luxury more than a necessity.

So would you prefer your council took £1.5 million from the yearly kitty to provide everyone with an extra waste collection or put it towards better causes but still offered the service at a charge for those that want it?
 
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estebanrey said:
Yes but that supports what I'm trying to say because they only 'add up' in terms of the council's collection costs but not for you as an individual.

Let me explain using some admittedly fag packet maths and what I know from the Authority I work for. It costs our tax payers around £1 a week each for their collections (it's actually closer to 90p but for ease of maths and continuity we'll stick with a quid) and that gets you two collections a week. Food waste (which is collected weekly here) and either your recycling or general waste bin (which are fortnightly).

So then you are paying 50p a week for each waste type to be collected. To include a free Garden Waste as well we would therefore be £1.50 a week from each household. There are roughly 60,000 CT eligible households in my authority so that means the council would be spending £30,000 a week more for the whole service.

So whilst it's only a 50p shift for you, it is a much bigger one for us. That's more than a carer's annual salary every week just to provide a free service that not everyone requires and let's be honest is a luxury more than a necessity.

So would you prefer your council took £1.5 million from the yearly kitty to provide everyone with an extra waste collection or put it towards better causes but still offered the service at a charge for those that want it?
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I like this explanation.

Spook187 said:
Ok understood :)
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I like this understanding :)
 
Kermit said:
No extra charge in Leeds where we have 3 normal large bins collected bi-weekly. Black...general waste, green for paper,card, plastic and metal and a green bin.

I'd be seriously ******* off if on top of my council tax they started charging me for the service not so much the cost be it £25-50/year but the principle of councils taking it on themselves to bypass goverment restricted rises in council tax by introducing a new tax and getting away with it. What next a £20 surcharge for lighting your street or £50/year road surface tax.

I get fed up with public bodies seemingly being exempt from keeping rises below or least in line with inflation year after year while most workign people make do with just below or if lucky 0.5% above inflation when times are good.
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Your council isn't soley funded from council tax! The government give them money as well, this has been cut every year, so councils are having to cut services and being on charges for luxuries such as green waste
 
FoxEye said:
Hedge trimmings won't compost for years. Stuff you cut with loppers rather than secateurs.

Compost bins are for grass mowing, food waste, the odd bit of cardboard, etc. Proper garden waste will just sit in your compost bin stubbornly going nowhere fast ;)
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;)
 
Cheshire West and Chester, no charge and a wheelie bin emptied fortnightly.

Seeing the broad spread of those that do charge from this thread was educational. It would not surprise me if ours introduced a charge next time the contract for the bins comes up. They are under the same pressures as everyone else.
 
New Forest DC charges, unsurprisingly there are a lot of regular bonfires.

No wheelie bins either which really winds me up. Means the day after collection day when half the street has chucked extra bags out they're inevitably torn apart by the local wildlife and crap spread everywhere.
 
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