Rise in charges for green bins planned by SKDC

Proposals to increase green waste bin charges have been backed by the South Kesteven District Council cabinet, as part of decisions on fees and charges for 2016/17.

The cabinet members voted in favour of the plan to increase the collection charge for the first green waste bin up to £33 at a meeting on Tuesday.

Any second and subsequent bins would be charged at 50 per cent of the annual collection charge of the first bin. Existing customers of the green waste bin currently pay an annual collection charge of £25.

The cabinet’s recommendation will now go back to full council to be decided as part of its wider budget.

Deputy leader of the council, and portfolio holder for healthy environment, Councillor Nick Craft said: “It may seem quite an increase, but we haven’t had an increase since we started this.

“South Holland are just bringing in green waste bins and their starting charge is £49 a year.”

The report by the district council’s corporate finance manager Richard Wyles, recommending the proposals to cabinet, stated: “This will be the first increase for the service since it was introduced in April 2012, and the policy development group recognised that operating costs for the service had increased during that time, and given the ongoing demand for the service, further operating rounds will need to be considered in the near future.

“The proposed new charges have been benchmarked with other authorities and continue to be extremely competitive and towards the lower end of the charging spectrum.”

There will also be a £3 discount to those who pay via an annual direct debit, which is being introduced.

In addition it was recommended that there be charges for the collection of waste from non-domestic properties, based upon commerical waste charges and which will be dependant on the size of containers and frequency of collection.

This means that community groups that have their own buildings, such as village halls and scout groups, could be charged for collections of waste and recycling under new plans being considered by councillors.

A council spokesman said: “The potential changes are among those that have been considered by a working group and recommended to the communities policy development group, but no final decision has yet been made.

“A lot of community group users already take their waste home and if these charges are implemented would not incur a fee.”

At Monday’s meeting, cabinet members also discussed introducing a hike in market traders fees for Bourne and Stamford in line with inflation.

However, Grantham Market would not be affected because it was considered by council officers that this could “stifle the recovery” of the market, which has been hit by “trading challenges”.

** See the full report to cabinet on proposed fees and charges.