Charges For Garden Waste Will Be Introduced In Conwy
Wednesday 24th Apr 2024
This week (09/04/19) Cabinet Members looked at the options and initial responses from the public consultation and voted to introduce a charge for collecting garden waste.
Cllr Donald Milne, Cabinet Member for Environment, Roads and Facilities, said: “With our current collection contract coming to an end we needed to consider and review our garden waste policy.”
The Council is not obliged to provide free garden waste collections, and the law says that reasonable charges can be made. Cabinet Members were told that continuing a free garden waste collection service is no longer an option, because it would mean the Environment Service would be unable to meet its savings target, or would result in other services being cut, such as street cleansing, grounds maintenance and winter maintenance.
More than half of Councils in England and Wales now charge for garden waste collections, including neighbours Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Flintshire.
The Task and Finish group looked at the available options and recommended a way forward; Scrutiny Committee then supported those recommendations.
Cllr Milne said, “We can tell from the responses to the consultation that residents value the service, and we’re pleased that we have been able to provide it since 2007 without a charge. Although people told us they would prefer to keep the service without charge, many of those who responded to the survey said they’d rather pay than lose the service completely. It’s worth noting that if you don’t need garden waste collection you won’t need to sign up.”
Cabinet agreed a guide price of £30 per year for the collections. Council officers will now start working on developing the scheme, which will operate fortnightly all year-round, with the aim of rolling out the new service towards the end of the year.
Final details of how the subscription garden waste collections will work will be finalised in association with the Task & Finish group.
Only residents who want garden waste collected from their homes will need to sign up for the service.
Residents will still be able to take garden waste to the Household Recycling Centres and rural mobile recycling centres for free.
