Issue - meetings

That the comments of the Committee on the arrangements for the introduction of the charging policy for the Garden Waste service, as part of Stage One of the budget proposals for 2018/19, be noted. 

The Chief Officer (Streetscene and Transportation) introduced the report to set out how the proposal to introduce a charging policy for garden waste service would be implemented and to provide an estimate for the associated financial benefit to the Council from the proposal.

            The Chief Officer reported that whilst recycling performance was good, the service provided to residents was not fully in line with Welsh Government (WG) Blueprint for collections in Wales, as the Blueprint recommended that Local Authorities charge residents for the provision of the garden waste collection service and that this funding be utilised to support the overall recycling service.     

            The Waste and Ancillary Services Manager outlined the options for how the system would operate, as detailed within the report.  He explained that notifications of the charge would be sent with the Council Tax information in March 2018 and residents would have until 1^st April, 2018 to register for the new service.  The service would continue to be provided free of charge to all residents during March 2018. 

            Councillor Carolyn Thomas apologised for the need to introduce a charge for the garden waste service but commented that given the ongoing financial challenges together with the cut to the Single Environment Grant from WG which did not match the cost of operating the full recycling service, it had been necessary to implement such a proposal. 

            Councillor Paul Shotton thanked officers for the report.  He commented on the estimated initial take up of the service and asked how this figure had been arrived at.  The Chief Officer explained that experience in other counties had shown an initial take up of around 40%, therefore this figure was being used as an estimate.

            In response to questions around the expected reduction in recycling performance and Landfill Tax, the Chief Officer explained that the overall reduction in recycling performance was expected to be between 2% and 3% which would take the Council’s current performance down to around 64%.  The Landfill Tax was collected by the Council on behalf of the WG.  This was then re-distributed to Council’s across Wales through the Single Environment Grant.

            Councillor Mike Peers raised concerns around the fairness of introducing a charging policy for the garden waste service and questioned the WG Blueprint which had been produced by the same consultants who had previously recommended that the Council reduce the number of Housing Recycling Centre’s (HRC) it had across the County.  He questioned the comments made around austerity and highlighted the current Council overspend of £1.1M, funding which he said would assist residents being impacted by cuts to funding by WG.  He referred to the charges currently imposed by neighbouring Local Authorities, as detailed in the report, and raised concerns that residents in Flintshire would be getting a poor deal in comparison.  The Chief Officer responded that the service provided by the Council was currently operating at a reduced cost in comparison to other Council’s across Wales.  It was unclear whether the charges set by neighbouring Local Authorities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41