New chages for Green Bin emptying.

[Dizzy]

My relatives live in Moore just up the road from me and they come under Halton Borough Council.

Seems they are now going to have to pay £30 a year for their green bin to be emptied (or £25 if paid online now). 

Residents have to subscribe to the chargeable service and will get a sticker to attach to their bin to show that they have paid and only stickered bins will be emptied.  Wonder how easy the stickers are to peel off

Surely bin emptying is part of council tax though and aren't councils trying to get people to recycle?  Saying that I suppose if people have big enough gardens they could always turn it into compost for themselves rather than it being collected and going to a composting site to be used on farmland etc.  Do the farmers etc buy the compost of councils ?

Or they could just take it to the local council tip themselves or if they only have small gardens just put it in their black bins... or throw over canal fences... or dump anywhere green...

Wonder how long it will be before other councils start charging too.

 

[asperity]

My mother lives in Wallasey and they started being charged for garden waste a couple of years ago. Thin end of the wedge if you ask me!!!

[Evil Sid]

so you pay and get a sticker that may or may not be peel offable.....hmm

 

photo taken and size of sticker noted. ten minutes to alter using photo shop. print out on that self adhesive photopaper. stick on bin. repeat as required. charge £2.00 for each and you are onto a nice little earner until the council catches up with you.

[Bazj]

typical thieving council idea if you ask me.... and then blame the government no doubt

[observer]

Wasn't there an idea to issue folk with special compost bins, so the waste can be converted into fertilizer?

[Dizzy]

Don't know about Halton but WBC do sell compost bins at a discounted price of £17.98 plus £5 delivery according to their website so maybe they do too.

Downside the video says if you put the wrong stuff in or don't put soil on the layers it will smell and can attract rats and other pests.  It also says it takes about 9 months to turn waste into usable compost so not much good for normal gardening ie regular grass/hedge cuttings and the likes as one would soon fill up.  I suppose you could buy 3 or 4 and if you planned it well could time them to go 'off' differently.


More details here....

https://www.warrington.gov.uk/compost


or just the video.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6eYbVzKG-U#t=95

Regardless of all that though I still don't think it's right that people are now going to be charged for a green bin service that the council started in the first place but if like Asp says other councils like Wallasey have already been charging for years then guess it's not so unusual after all.  Blue bins next maybe ??

[Robbo]

By law Councils are only obliged to empty Blue bins and Black bins as part of the Council Tax. There is no obligation to provide or empty green bins.

As far as I am aware HBC have to make savings of £19m for 2015-16 ordered by the government, so yes it is the governments fault.

[Bazj]

By law Councils are only obliged to empty Blue bins and Black bins as part of the Council Tax. There is no obligation to provide or empty green bins.

As far as I am aware HBC have to make savings of £19m for 2015-16 ordered by the government, so yes it is the governments fault.

 

Charging extra for something that was free isn't saving ....it is charging more. There is a big difference

[Robbo]

As a businessman Baz, you should know more than most that there is no such thing as a free service, unless the bin men did the collections without pay and the lorries run on fresh air. The collection of garden waste had to be paid for and that came out of the Council tax. If that money is no longer there then either the service stops or a charge is put on it, so there isn't a difference. It's not rocket science.

[Bazj]

As a businessman Baz, you should know more than most that there is no such thing as a free service, unless the bin men did the collections without pay and the lorries run on fresh air. The collection of garden waste had to be paid for and that came out of the Council tax. If that money is no longer there then either the service stops or a charge is put on it, so there isn't a difference. It's not rocket science.

Maybe free wasn't the correct terminology then.... maybe I should have said "Charging for something that I am already paying for is just taking the mick...." So when they start charging for the blue bins and the black bins and the street lights and.... well what else does my council tax include? 

 

Can it be seen as right that we pay council tax; that includes a given number of items/services, only for the Labour council to then start charging for things that are already on that list?

 

It is just a way of putting up the council tax without going over the permissible 2% increase that would trigger a local referendum that would be a fairer way of doing things.

 

Charging for individual services is a way of circumventing this which also means that the charge is applied across the board and will affect low income families far more than the middle income ones.... 

[Robbo]

For fear of repeating myself, Councils are not obliged to provide householders free collection of their garden waste although they do have a duty to dispose of household waste free of charge. The law gives Councils the discretion to make a reasonable charge for the collection of household garden waste in the same way that charges can be made for bulky waste collection.

 

As for hitting the poorest, I would have thought the really poor may well live in terraced housing with backyards not lawns and as such wont be affected.

 

In this case you are correct its a labour council but charges for green waste collection are common over most of the country as nearly half of all councils charge some as much as £90

[Bazj]

For fear of repeating myself, Councils are not obliged to provide householders free collection of their garden waste although they do have a duty to dispose of household waste free of charge. The law gives Councils the discretion to make a reasonable charge for the collection of household garden waste in the same way that charges can be made for bulky waste collection.

 

As for hitting the poorest, I would have thought the really poor may well live in terraced housing with backyards not lawns and as such wont be affected.

 

In this case you are correct its a labour council but charges for green waste collection are common over most of the country as nearly half of all councils charge some as much as £90

 

so tell me exactly what is included in the council charge then and what else we may expect them to start charging for seeing as they may not be legally obliged to provide....

 

They are using it as a get out just as they did when they went to fortnightly collections

 

If they are incapable of managing their budgets then they are obviously not fit for purpose.... especially seeing as there has been a massive increase in the number of houses in this town over the past few years and so a massive increase in the amount of council tax.... we often hear them banging on about cuts to funding, but never how much additional income they have raised with the additional houses

[Evil Sid]

i know it is the principle of the thing but if you pay the £30.00 it works out at just over £2.00 a month, about what it costs to provide water for a village in africa or about what most charities are asking for as a monthly donation.

 

so knock one charitable donation on the head and you can have your green bin emptied.

 

 or even better we could start our own campaign. "For £2.00 a month you can ensure that a green bin in the warrington area is emptied  during the summer months."

[Robbo]

Not sure any councils run a fortnightly service, most if not all still provide a weekly service albeit a black bin one week and a blue bin the next. I would think that most councils are under pressure in managing budgets, particularly if they are trying to avoid compulsory redundancies. But I agree about councils not being fit for purpose, the problem is that we have governments not fit for purpose expecting councils not fit for purpose to balance their books.

[Bazj]

It is a principle thing.... if nobody actually stands up to these thieves, eventually you will be paying for all of your bin collections, separate charge for gritting, separate charge if you want your street lights fixing...etc etc.... but still putting up council tax by 1.9999999% every year to avoid asking the public what they think

 

These sort of things don't only affect the poorer members of society too; eventually, even those with a bit of spare cash at the end of the month end up skint as well

[Robbo]

Of course it could be said that up to now, all the poor people without gardens have been subsidising those with gardens.

[Bazj]

Of course it could be said that up to now, all the poor people without gardens have been subsidising those with gardens.

 

just like us taxpayers have been subsidising the drug taking doleys living in council houses.... and your point is?

[Robbo]

my point is why do you support one and not the other?

[Bazj]

because 

 

my point is why do you support one and not the other?

 

there wasn't "another" until I made my last point... but I am more against my taxes going to smackheads living in council houses and getting everything for nothing.... of which there are many in Warrington

 

Many people are against paying for many things.... There is a guy who goes into our local pub who has retired from the NHS in his 50's who doesn't agree with him having to fund schools because he doesn't have any kids.... 

[fugtifino]

Of course it could be said that up to now, all the poor people without gardens have been subsidising those with gardens.

 

 

just like us taxpayers have been subsidising the drug taking doleys living in council houses.... and your point is?

 

 

Well, I can't speak for Robbo, of course, but how the difference looks to me is something like this:

 

There's nobody (on here at least and, yes, this may well change) griping about the "trickle up" cost from people who don't have much of a garden.

 

There's nothing approaching the level of vitriol you're displaying here against those who might get some benefit from what you (and I) pay into the community.

 

 

 but I am more against my taxes going to smackheads living in council houses and getting everything for nothing.... of which there are many in Warrington

 

Ooh, go on then, got any figures other than what some bloke in the pub told you or some other "wot I reckonry"??

 

That ex NHS fella sounds like someone who doesn't seem to appreciate the idea that we all contribute for the greater good of the communities we live in, do you get on with him ok?

[Freeborn John]

I predict a lot of people in Halton will start putting their garden waste into their black bin just like they used to, since nobody likes having a gun put to their heads.

They might even ring the council and tell them to come and pick their green eyesores up, fancy that!

[Robbo]

Well Baz its plain to see that you object to some of your money subsidising the less well of (not what you call them) in council houses and yet you're in favour of the poor subsidising the collection of green waste rather than charge those who use it. Toryism is alive and well.

[P J]

Back to the bins , I expect a lot more people may turn to composting their green waste rather than pay to have it removed.

[Bazj]

Well Baz its plain to see that you object to some of your money subsidising the less well of (not what you call them) in council houses and yet you're in favour of the poor subsidising the collection of green waste rather than charge those who use it. Toryism is alive and well.

 

I cannot believe what I'm reading here... are you seriously telling me you would rather your hard earned money is spent on subsidising druggies than paying for services for the actual people that pay the taxes in the first place?

 

Surely a bullet to the head for the druggie would not only cut the crime rate but also lower the councils costs too.... or is that a little too right wing for you?

[P J]

Which drug would you impose the shooting to death penalty for Baz?  Heroin, coke, marajuana, alcohol, prescription drugs?  Going to need a lot of bullets.