Falkirk residents will have to pay for garden waste collection and special uplifts in a shake-up that will also see the council's environmental enforcement team being axed. The new charges were agreed at a meeting of Falkirk Council' s executive on Tuesday, although Independent councillor Robert Spears said he feared they could become "a fly-tippers' charter."
Director of place services, Malcolm Bennie, said that charges for garden waste and special uplifts are common throughout Scotland and there was no reason to suppose they would not work in Falkirk. Councillor Iain Sinclair, the SNP spokesperson on climate change, said he recognised councillors were being asked to take "difficult and unpopular decisions" but added: "our role is to ensure that services continue to be delivered."
However, the charges won't be as much as first proposed. The annual fee for brown bin collections in Falkirk will be £25, rather than £35 as originally proposed (£12.50 for those on eligible benefits).
There will now be no free uplifts at all but the charge for each uplift - with a maximum of five items - will remain at £35. Residents on eligible benefits will be entitled to one free uplift a year. Members of the Conservative group supported the SNP administration's proposals, but successfully proposed lower charges.
After the vote, councillor James Bundy, environment spokesperson for the Falkirk Conservatives, said: “Voting to introduce an annual brown bin charge is something that the Falkirk Conservatives did not want to do, but with the difficult financial situation that the council is in – caused by local government cuts by the SNP Government in Holyrood – we must be pragmatic.
“By reducing the amount the council will charge annually for brown bins, we have aimed to consider and balance the difficult financial situations faced by not only the council but by families across Falkirk.”
Councillor Robert Spears was not convinced that the changes would not have a negative impact. He said: "I would hate this to become a fly-tippers' charter where we have no control because we're charging people too much." He was concerned that people would end up putting all of their waste into green bins, including garden rubbish.
Head of environment Douglas Gardiner acknowledged that was a "real possibility" and it does happen. But he said any additional costs are more than offset by the income from brown bins.
Mr Binnie said Falkirk was unusual in not charging for brown bin collection and special uplifts and said other councils had not experienced the huge problems that councillors were raising. He said: "It is something we will monitor to see if these things happen but there are no case studies to suggest it will."
The SNP group also made a change to the original proposals, which had suggested scrapping the £50,000 environment improvement. Instead, they proposed reducing the fund to £20,000, which was supported by the Conservatives.
Councillors also agreed to scrap the environmental enforcement team from summer 2023. The team of four's primary role is to investigate fly tipping and littering offences and to issue fixed penalty notices where evidence allows.
Members heard that the council is issuing an average of five fixed penalty notices per month for fly-tipping and this could be done by other council staff. Members of the Labour group did not support the proposals, saying that a wider review was necessary and the impact of the cost of living crisis should be considered, but this was not supported.
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