Cash-strapped council introduces £49 annual charge for garden waste

Solihull residents will have to pay a £49 annual charge for previously-free garden waste collections from next year after senior councilors agreed to the new levy. The decision to introduce the charge from July was made at a lively cabinet meeting which saw raised voices on Thursday, December 12.

Conservative-run Solihull Council has not previously charged for the service although householders could pay around £90-a-year for an extra bin to collect extra garden waste. Council leader Coun Ian Courts said the authority had resisted bringing in the charge for years but blamed budgetary pressures as it faced a £6.8 million hole in its finances.

Coun Ken Hawkins, the cabinet portfolio holder for environment and infrastructure which includes waste collections, said: “We examined this in detail in 2016. Members debated it, we all said: 'No we don’t want to go down that line'. It is something I don’t want to do but we are in a different situation now.”

READ MORE: 'Don't make children's services a political football' say Solihull councillors in heated debate

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Coun Tony Dicacco said: “In the report (to cabinet) it says over 75 per cent of local authorities currently charge. We are an outlier. In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to charge for it.”

Solihull residents were asked for their views on paying for green waste collections in a survey last summer. Of the respondents, 60 per cent said they would not be willing to pay while a majority would look at other ways of disposal including putting their garden waste in their black bin or burning it instead.

Coun Ade Adeyamo, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Solihull Council, said some residents would take such "drastic measures” if the charge was brought in. But Conservative councillor Coun Andy Mackiewicz said: “The statistics are a sample of people who don’t want to pay.

“You can’t quote those in any authority at all. The authority we should take from is experience from other councils.” Later in the meeting Coun Adeyamo said: “We are forcing through unpopular decisions. It would be far better for members to have a robust debate and put this to a vote in full council.”

Coun Courts said: “There will be a robust discussion at budget session. Your party has never put forward a proposal, instead it just criticises and says reduce council tax." Before the meeting Coun Courts had said it cost £1.8m a year to run the service and it was fair to charge as those without a garden or who did not use green waste collections were “paying for a service they do not receive”.

Concluding the debate Coun Courts said: “We are taking these decisions because it is in the best interests of sustainability for this council. We have resisted this for many years but there comes a point we have to take decisions.”