A “two-tier system” in South Gloucestershire has left some residents paying for garden waste collections while others get their bins collected for free.
Since July, South Gloucestershire Council has not taken payments from people renewing annual garden waste subscriptions.
This means some residents are paying £63 a year to have their green bins collected, while other residents who are unable to renew their subscriptions don’t have to pay.
The council is “changing the way subscriptions are set up”, which is the cause of the problem with payments.
Last year the fees doubled from £30 to £60, as council bosses promised further increases would only be in line with inflation. Next year however the fees are due to go up to £75, to cover the increasing cost of providing the service.
The council’s cabinet was urged to simply accept payments at the current rate, on Monday, November 10, to cover costs instead of hiking fees.
Andrew Shaw, parish councillor in Bradley Stoke, said: “What I don’t understand is why the transition from an old system to a new system wasn’t a changeover that maintained continuity of service, by putting the new system in place and testing it before the old system was discontinued. This doesn’t look like competent operations or financial management.
“It’s created a two-tier set up with some garden waste subscribers, like myself, paying for the service, while other subscribers have enjoyed the same level of service for nil payment. So will I be getting a refund or will the other people be receiving a back-dated invoice?
“I’m dismayed to see a proposal in the budget for the green bin charge to increase next year from £63 to £75, a whopping 19 per cent increase which would improve the cost situation by £400,000.
"But surely the reason why the cost of the green bin collections isn’t being covered is because you’ve been providing it free of charge for certain residents for a third of the year?”
He estimated that the council has lost out on more than £500,000 due to not taking payments since July — which could more than cover the extra income from hiking the fees next year. He urged the cabinet to drop their proposals to hike the fees next year and fix the payment system. Work is being carried out to fix the system, but it’s not known when any repairs will be rolled out.
Labour Councillor Sean Rhodes, cabinet member for communities, said: “We’re very, very concerned about it. Rest assured that we do know there’s a problem happening. We’re working as hard as we can to get a resolution, because with the reduction in revenue, it’s not something that can carry on unresolved.”
Liberal Democrat Cllr Maggie Tyrrell, leader of the council, added: “This has been a very unfortunate incident and elected members have expressed their displeasure over the whole issue, because we’re well aware that we need to retain the revenue. We’ll continue to work hard on this with our officers to rectify it as soon as possible.”
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