Agenda item

The Garden and Bulky Waste Collections – Fee Proposal item was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste.

Bulky Waste Collections

At the time of the report’s publication, SKDC charged £21 for the first bulky waste item and £11 for each subsequent item. Fridges and freezers were charged at £21 per item and could not be counted as the ‘first item’ to allow for the discounted additional item price. The service collected approximately 5,700 items per year.

The total operating costs for this service were approximately £88,160 per year and a fully subscribed service had a potential income of around £90,000 per year (based on 2023/24 figures).

The operating costs (including fuel, salaries and equipment) had tended to increase each year in-line with inflation. If a fee increase wasn’t considered there was a possibility that the cost of running the service would not be covered by the income generated for the delivery of the service.

Following analysis of the bulky waste collection data the report suggested that if there was a £1 increase on all bulky waste charges, an additional £6,100 in income could be raised.

Garden Waste Collection

The garden waste collection service charged participating residents £51 per year to empty their first bin and £42 per additional bin. In the first year, new customers paid £79 for the service (an additional £28 for the bin and £12 for delivery).

The service was very popular and, at the time of the report’s publication, there were approximately 36,000 subscriptions. The service generated an income of approximately £1.8million and this income was used to fund the operational costs of running the service as well as contributing towards the provision of new freighters.

Based on the current customer base, the report suggested that an increase of £1 would generate an additional £38,000 per year.

It was noted by the Cabinet Member for Environment & Waste that the suggested price increase may lead to a slight decrease in uptake of the Garden Waste Collection service. However, the Cabinet Member was positive about this, suggesting that this would likely lead to an uptake in home composting which was a more eco-friendly method of disposal.

During discussions, members commented on the following:

-       It was noted by the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer that contrary to the recommendation within the report, any recommendation made during the item would be considered by the Budget Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 14 January 2025, before the Cabinet.

-       The Vice-Chairman suggested considering the suggested price increase for Garden Waste Collections and Bulky Waste Collections as separate proposals. This was proposed, seconded and AGREED by Members.

-       Several Members commented that they supported the proposals to increase the prices of the service, roughly in line with inflation, as it was necessary to cover the increasing costs of the service.

-       In this respect, Members queried whether the suggested £1 price increase was not only sufficient for the service, but also accounted an appropriate margin for contingency planning. This was confirmed to be sufficient and include an appropriate margin by the Cabinet Member for Environment & Waste and by the Head of Waste & Markets.

Councillor Philip Knowles arrived at the Chamber.

-       Given that Members had agreed to consider separate price increase proposals for the two services, it was queried whether one service could cross subsidise another. It was confirmed that this was possible.

-       The Cabinet Member noted that whilst there were figures within the report for the prices charged by other neighboring authorities, it was difficult to compare given the different challenges faced by each authority. The example given was that SKDC was a large and sparsely populated rural area. Therefore, Waste Collection drivers faced different challenges to their counterparts in more urban areas such as Lincoln.

-       It was queried whether the costs of the service outlined within the report included the costs of the call operators. This was confirmed.

-       An ACTION was taken away by the Head of Waste & Markets to establish the average amount of bulky waste items collected following a Members query.

-       Confirmation was given by the Head of Waste & Markets that the costs of fly tipping were under a different waste classification and therefore dealt with by a different team. Consequently, the costs of the Bulky Waste Collection Service did not need to account for this.

-       Following a Member’s query, it was confirmed that 45% of SKDC residents had a Garden Waste bin and 5% had two Garden Waste bins.

-       The Leader of the Council expressed the view that individuals that had opted in to the Garden Waste Collection Service tended to be able to afford it. Another Member suggested this to be the case as if they required a garden waste bin then this suggested their garden to be a substantial size, implying sufficient wealth to afford the suggested price increase.  

A Member proposed recommending to the Budget Overview and Scrutiny Committee, for the period 2025/26, a £2 increase on the Green Waste Collections but freezing the price of the Bulky Waste Collections. This was seconded and following a vote the proposal was AGREED.

Councillor Mark Whittington requested that his vote against the proposal be recorded.