Leader says South Holland District Council cannot afford financially to not make the change to wheelie bins

The leader of South Holland District Council says the authority did not have ‘a lot of choice’ but to bring in wheelie bins - and cannot afford to not make the change.

Coun Nick Worth says last night’s cabinet decision to ditch the traditional green and black bin bags in favour of wheelie bins was the ‘most difficult’ in his 26 years on the authority and appreciates it is not going to popular with some.

But with the new legal requirements imposed by the law, the Environment Act, along with an anticipated drop in Government funding later this year, Coun Worth says the council cannot afford to miss out on the chance to make savings and income.

The Environment Act is bringing in a mandatory food waste collection along with requirements to separate paper and card.

The days of bin bags are also numbered thanks to Local Government Reforms - which will bring about the abolition of district and Lincolnshire County Councils - as all the other authorities in Lincolnshire have bins.

South Holland also has some of the worst recycling rates in the country as unseparated waste in the green bags leads to high rates of contamination. This means that items put out in the green bags cannot be recycled.

Speaking shortly after his cabinet took the decision to approve the introduction of wheelie bins, Coun Worth said: “I have been on the council for 26 years and that was the most difficult decision to make.

“You only have to look at social media to see that it has really divided opinion but my personal feeling is we haven’t got a lot of choice at the end of the day.

“We have things to comply with the Environment Act but we have local government reorgansation coming in two-and-a-half years down the line. Every other council in Lincolnshire has bins and no unitary authority is going to be letting the area of South Holland pick up bags.

“It is coming down the line whether we like it or not. It is better to be ahead of the game.”

Coun Worth said that he is not expecting to see an increase in the amount of money given to the council by Government to pay for our services.

Councillors were told during a meeting, earlier this year, to decide council tax rate that the government settlement resulted in a £332,000 reduction in grants. The authority’s finances also faces the pressure of paying for the Internal Drainage Levy with costs now standing at £3.57 million annually for the council.

Coun Worth said that the introduction of bins could save around £500,000 and the authority could also make £500,000 in income as a result of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) payments.

Large firms like Amazon are reducing the amount of packaging for its products but will also be paying the Government which will then be paying local authorities to produce better recycling rates.

He said: “We also cannot afford financially not to do it.

“With a Labour government I am not anticipating that we will be any better off with the financial settlement.”

The current system in which households can put out an unlimited amount of waste is not working as it overspent by £215,000 in the last financial year and has also resulted in more than 150 cases in a three month period when a second collection run was needed as the lorry had reached its maximum weight and could not continue.

It is also not meeting key recycling targets.

Coun Worth said: “We are one of the worst for recycling. The last quarter suggests that we only recycled 28% of our waste and 20% of the recycling was contaminated as we are putting it in bags.

“Here is a real opportunity to vastly increase our recycling by 10 to 15% and at the same time reduce the amount of residual (black bin bags) waste that we are producing now.”

He also said that it would result in a ‘real change in the mindset’ of the general public but the council will be helping people to understand how they can recycle more.

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