A plan to lift the cost of East Renfrewshire’s garden waste permit by £5 has been put forward after a £20 increase was branded an “unfair burden” on residents.
Conservative councillors called-in a decision by East Renfrewshire Council’s cabinet, which would have seen the charge rise from £40 to £60 per year.
Cllr Paul Edlin, Conservative, has now suggested increasing the fee to £45 and a review of the garden waste permit system.
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His proposal was backed by the council’s audit and scrutiny committee and will be recommended to cabinet members, who can choose to accept the change or take the issue to a full council meeting.
Cllr Edlin suggested the £20 rise could lead to an increase in fly-tipping.
“Residents in East Renfrewshire are suffering just now, and this is one more thing,” he said. “To make it easier for them to get rid of their garden waste is a relatively minor thing for us to give them, even if there have to be extra costs elsewhere.”
His Conservative colleague, Cllr Jim McLean, the lead signatory on the call-in notice, said: “Some other local authorities charge for this service but no other is currently at the level we are proposing.
“Residents have voiced their concerns by stating on various social media platforms that they will not renew or they will put their waste in the grey bin [non-recyclable waste]. Others have raised concerns that this will lead to an increase in fly-tipping.
“We fully appreciate the council has very difficult spending decisions to make; however we see no clear indication, evidence or credible research of just how many households will bother to renew.”
Brown bins are used for garden and food waste but the council only charges for the collection of garden waste. It runs a 50-week collection service, with residents able to choose whether to buy the garden waste permit.
Council leader Owen O’Donnell said: “It is a challenging financial environment, for residents facing the cost of living crisis and the council needing to deliver £30m of savings over the next three years.
“Collectively the council needs to make tough decisions to balance our budget, whilst maintaining service levels. These savings proposals were first tabled at the very first budget strategy group in September.”
He said the rationale is “about increased recovery of costs for a non-statutory service”. “It is not a profit-generating proposal,” he added.
Cllr Gordon Wallace, Conservative, said the cabinet had been advised that the garden waste collection “operates at a profit”. Cllr O’Donnell said this had been “very badly worded” and an official apologised for the mix-up.
Cllr O’Donnell said the total gross costs of garden and food waste collection were growing from £1.9m to £2.3m. He added the £60 charge equates to “£1.20 per week per pick up or an increase of 40p per week”.
The council leader also said a £45 fee would “mean the net costs of running the service would be higher by around £400,000”.
“This would have to be found either from savings elsewhere in the budget, and at this stage we have few places to turn for that scale of savings, or we would have to consider raising council tax between 0.5 and 1%.”
Cllr Wallace said he felt the council had looked at residents paying for permits as “being, for want of a better phrase, an easy touch”.
“I think it is an unfair burden on those who already pay substantial sums of money on it,” he added.
A motion from Cllr Tony Buchanan, SNP, seconded by Provost Mary Montague, Labour, to accept the £60 proposal was rejected by four votes to three.
Cllr Edlin, seconded by Cllr Wallace, then moved the recommendation to increase the permit cost by only £5, which passed.
Cllr David Macdonald, independent, had suggested officials should produce a report on introducing a reduced garden waste service, running between mid-March and October, but his proposal wasn’t seconded.
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