Fees for garden waste?

img_3072It looks like Redbridge Council is to introduce a £50 annual fee for door-to-door collection of garden waste – just weeks after it was decided to axe the wintertime collection.

The fee could be introduced from April 2017, meaning next week’s collection could be the very last of its kind. If the plan is agreed, householders who pay the fee would not use the green bags as they currently do, but would instead be given 50 biodegradable sacks. If they need more they would have to pay extra for them.

The plans are due to be discussed next week at a council committee. The councillor responsible for environment and sustainability, Cllr John Howard, said the garden waste collections cost £2m a year to run, and said that introducing a charge would put Redbridge in line with most local authorities.

In fact Redbridge’s neighbouring councils offer a mixed picture. Waltham Forest Council and Newham Council make no charge for garden waste collection. Barking and Dagenham have however just stopped their collection and are consulting on introducing a fee (“as offered in neighbouring boroughs”!). Only Havering Council currently charges a fee – £35 a year, for which residents can either have biodegradable bags or a wheelie bin.

Cllr Howard said: “We know that the garden waste service is something that residents really value and we don’t want to take it away completely, but the only way to keep the service running while we are under such immense financial pressure is to consider a charge to the service.”

The news comes as the council also announced it would not be funding the replacement of dead or dying street trees, as reported here.  And it comes just after the announcement that the council was seeking to build a swimming pool in Wanstead.

18 thoughts on “Fees for garden waste?”

  1. I can only imgaine this is going to add to pollution levels going up in Redbridge, with people driving to the rubbish tip instead of paying the council. That’s cheaper than the £10 a week they are going to be charging people (assuming paying for the service, it is year round and taking into account missed collections over holiday periods and in general!).

    As for the swimming pool why on earth would a council be building a swimming pool when there are cuts everywhere else??? How is that justified? I had to check today is December and not April 1st!

  2. I agree with the pollution comment. I also foresee people dumping bags of leaves by the side of the road, away from their houses. My collections are regularly missed but, as we had ‘all winter’, I didn’t worry about it too much until collection was missed two weeks running. It was only when I called the council that I found out the collections were being stopped – there has been no notification go out. This week, after a frantic leaf-sweeping session, having already put a lot into my compost bin, I filled 6 green bags and 3 bins liners, and that only cleared 3/4 of my garden. 50 disposable bags a year won’t even cover the autumn leaf drop for those of us living near large trees. Unless I could persuade Thames Water (who own the trees) to pay for more bags, I’d be doing a lot of driving to the tip and so would my neighbours.

  3. I don’t have a problem with this. I use both the green collection service and have a compost bin. Some people in the borough don’t have gardens and a reduction of £2m could fend off a large Council Tax rise which would benefit all. I also understand that the plans not to replace diseased/dead trees is a false rumour. Would be interested to know who exactly posts for Wansteadium but have never received an answer.

  4. I’ll be perfectly blunt, Redbridge Council: screw the swimming pool, take care the borough’s proper functioning and services first!

  5. Garden collection is not a necessity. What about those who live in flats that don’t require it.

    I’m all for the £50 a year. As for saying it will add to pollution, that is ridiculous.

    As for the pool… A local pool will reduce pollution as locals won’t need to drive to nearby pools!
    For the future generations a pool will give great health benefits and help towards creating future olypians.

    Wanstead goes further than just this site. There are many issues we have that are not tackled. How about the labour table getting bigger and bigger on the high street and no one commenting.
    How about the lighthouse took down the ‘offensive’ stickers in the window that were slated in here.. no mention of that.

    Grow up people.

    1. Wanstead happens to be particularly blessed with more opportunity for fitness than most, in the shape of all the forest and parklands and green spaces people can walk and hike through. Walking is a fitness activity too.

      And don’t tell people to “grow up” just because you refuse to see the legitimacy of their concerns. Wanstead “goes a lot further” than what YOU want people to think and do, Michael, so YOU grow up, buddy.

    2. You may support the charge as you live in a flat but your council tax charge reflects this. I live at the side of the forest with billions of leaves and my council tax is £243 a month. I have no children and work full time. The only additional extra I receive from my council tax payments every month is my green waste collection and they want to take that away from me too! I like everybody else will now just seeep them into the street and high street for all to enjoy!

  6. Not really ridiculous with the pollution comment if many people decide to drive to a tip instead of having the odd lorry picking up each day of the week.

    As for the pool there’s one at Stratford used for the London Olympics 2012, you won’t need to get in a car to go there

    1. It’s not that easy to get to the Olympic swimming pool without a car, especially with two kids and carrying three swimming kits. The pool is a long way from the tube station when you’re walking with that lot.

      We would go swimming a lot more often if we didn’t have to travel on public transport to the Olympic pool or Leytonstone.

      I find the garden waste collection very useful, but I wouldn’t pay £50 for it.

  7. It’s an interesting argument about what people do and don’t use, depend on living in flats/houses etc…I suppose for arguments sake some people don’t have cars and don’t use public transport but still have to pay for road fixing etc….

    Anyway, I could never understand why the council went to all year round collections, maybe part of the contract for garden waste. The other thing is they do sell compost at the Redbridge rubbish tip which is supposedly mafe from our garden waste. I can only assume this hasn’t been too helpful in reducing the collection bill.

  8. Is there not a revenue from garden waste in the form of compost. I recall seeing bags of it for sale at Chigwell Road tip. The Eden Centre was built on the waste from Plymouth’s gardens. Does this not appear in the cost plan?

  9. Green waste collection is low hanging fruit for any Council looking to prune costs; it has been useful I’ll admit but has more than a whiff of ‘nice to’ about it. Surprised it has lasted this long.

    As for self financing the scheme, by charging for collections (and swimming ) , well I’m sure there is an argument that this would be best dealt with by the private sector.

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