Sandwell £35 green waste annual charge is approved

Councillors debated whether to accept cabinet minutes dated November 16 including a recommendation to review garden waste collection on Tuesday.

In that cabinet meeting, councillors voted to recommend a £35 garden waste collection charge under a new subscription service. They argue the £35 subscription to households will generate an estimated income of £1.5 million based on around one-third of households initially subscribing.

The council suggests the charge will encourage home composting – particularly for those residents who only produce smaller amounts of garden waste, but may also cause residents to mix garden waste with usual household rubbish.

But council papers estimate if 120,000 households each receive 19 kerbside collections a year, around 5.5kg of green waste will be collected per bin – less than half full when emptied.

Councillor David Fisher, the leader of Sandwell Council's opposition Conservative group, proposed an amendment to keep green waste collections free of charge.

Seconding the motion, Conservative councillor William Gill said: “I didn’t actually realise when this was coming to the forefront how much of an emotive issue this would be for local residents.

“If we look at our neighbours in the Black Country – Dudley, Walsall and Wolverhampton – Dudley and Walsall don’t charge, Wolverhampton does and I’ll leave it up to you guys to to answer which one is the Labour council.

“Residents have already paid for this service through their council tax and to charge them twice for a service is what many say is essential a kick in the teeth. It just seems counter-intuitive, especially given that the council may have to fork out for the fly-tipping collection of fly-tipping of garden waste if that is to happen.”

Conservative councillor Les Trumpeter said: “We approved retaining the current election cycles of thirds based on a response rate of just 487 residents after the conclusion of the six-week formal consultation process.

“We have 1,500 signatures – some three times the amount of the electoral cycle response. I’m interested to see if we are able to discard the views of these 1,500 residents.”

Deputy council leader Bob Piper said the hike in garden waste collection was needed to “balance a budget due to the Conservative Government’s continued cuts”.

He pointed to other Conservative councils, including Malvern Hills, which charge for green waste collections.

“We will be voting in favour of the garden waste collection," he said.

"We will be voting reluctantly in favour the garden waste collection, because frankly, we provided a free garden waste collection, but your government decided to take £115 million pounds from the council over the last 12 years and we’d like to make that money back up.”

Conservative councillor Amrita Dunn hit back at Councillor Piper and claimed the councils he listed “aren’t in any kind of issues in regards to their financial mismanagement”.

She said: “Malvern Hills District Council this year, apologised that they had to make the very difficult decision to increase council tax by £5, whereas Sandwell Labour raised a five per cent increase in council tax but also a self tax for bin collections.”

Labour councillor John Giles said he would donate his £35 green waste charge to a food bank, adding “they are people who are struggling for food. Most gardeners who are good at gardening wouldn’t throw their green waste away”.

But Councillor Fisher hit back at Councillor Giles over his comments.

He said: “I compost myself at home and it’s a 12 to 18-month process minimum. In between that I have to use my garden waste because otherwise I’ll need a garden as large a football field to store all my all my compost.”

Labour councillor Ellen Fenton said: “I didn’t step up to represent my community so I could be responsible for overseeing government-enforced cuts. The accusations against labour and the stupid party politics for a few votes when all of us are actually together.”

Council leader Kerrie Carmichael said the Conservatives offer “no critical alternative” other than to charge for green waste collection.

She said: “It is not a financial mismanagement by this council, but it’s a financial mismanagement by the government. You’ve offered no critical alternative or plan to this.

“We have to make savings to discretionary services and if you don’t know what a discretionary services is those things that we might have to take a bite from the public.”

The amendment by the Conservatives was voted down. The recommendations to approve cabinet minutes – including a green waste charge – were approved by the council.