Brown bin collection - Council starting to charge?

[cella]

The food waste currently goes into the brown bins with garden waste?

Penguin68 Wrote:

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> Not clear whether this charge is for food waste or

> just garden waste in bags?

>

> Collecting food waste is a core and statutory duty

> of the council - such collections are already

> factored in to the Community charge. I believe it

> is brown bin garden waste which is referred to,

> and the council will (I believe) charge separately

> for the garden waste bags now given free.

> Presumably if you pay their ransom they will give

> you a sticker for your bin, or some other

> identifier. They are starting in 2 weeks time, yet

> have made no provision or plan for any of this.

> Nor any real announcement (the information being

> posted does not come from any communication made

> direct to residents, but from their tedious and

> obscure documents). And I note it takes an ex

> councillor (and not any of the incumbents) to

> confirm the rumours.

[James Barber]

Any tax on doing the right thing results in people doing it less.

?30 per household and increase Bulky Waste collection charges are taxes.

The incumbent councillors voted for this at February Council Assembly. They must know what they voted for.

So if they know what they voted why do they need to 'come back to you' about it? Their silence is an attempt to disassociate themselves from these charges and assuming people will forget.

Hi dc,

Kingston Council is an Outer London council with very different problems with much less fly tipping and their recycling rate is much higher than ours already. I would not vote for such policies and never did in our Inner London council.

And the Lib Dems showed a number of ways the council could have made more savings to more than cover the assumed revenue. But as these ideas came from Lib Dems were rejected out of hand.

[richard tudor]

Reply from Cllr Livingstone is response to mine re brown bins

Dear Richard

Thank you for your email. Yes, the council has decided to introduce a ?30 per year charge to collect garden waste and this will start on 3 June. The charge will be for a financial year (April to March) but as the first year will be for ten months, the charge will be reduced pro rata to ?25 for 2019/20. Food waste brown bins will, however, remain as a free service to Southwark residents.

The council will be writing to residents next month to outline the charge and there will be further information in May.

Most other London boroughs already charge for garden waste and ?30 is the lowest level charged (one borough charges ?75).

This has not been an easy decision for the council, but as you observe money does not grow on trees and this council has suffered some of the most drastic cuts in funding from government since 2010. Back then, government grants made up 72% of the council?s budget and since then the government have taken away 63p of every pound given. This is before inflation is even considered. If the council is still to provide quality services and protect what are its most expensive services ? those that protect our most vulnerable residents ? it is necessary for us to start charging for those things that other councils started charging for years ago.

I hope this explains why we have had to take this difficult decision.

Regards

Councillor Richard Livingstone

Cabinet member for Environment, Transport Management and Air Quality

Labour councillor for Old Kent Road Ward

London Borough of Southwark

From: richard tudor [mailto:[email protected]]

Sent: Friday, March 22, 2019 1:38 PM

To: Livingstone, Richard; John, Peter

Subject: Brown bins.

There are many rumours regarding the possibility of charging for the use of brown bins for food waste and compostable garden waste.

Why have we not been informed about the possibility happening and consulting with residents.

Is this yet again like the charging for using parks, no one being informed just a decision taken hoping no one will find out until it is to late.It might be better for you and your fellow Cllrs to realise that money just does not appear from the money tree and life is getting more difficult meeting all these new charges.

We would all like to get Southwark's staffs cost of living rises and progression up the salary scale every year.

I would appreciate an answer.

[AylwardS]

Richard tudor thanks for posting that answers two of the questions I have

Start date 3 June and food waste will still be collected

[James Barber]

For those that can't afford to pay this you could order a second green wheelie bin -https://forms.southwark.gov.uk/beta/ShowForm.asp?fm_fid=728

[singalto]

Southwark council will now need to fork out for those food caddies for households like mine who use their brown bin. The collection lorry will still trundle around collecting the food caddies and the brown bins which have been paid for. How will the bin men know who has paid and what is to stop people dumping their stuff in other bins? I thought we were being encouraged to recycle!

[snoopy17]

if you put garden waste in the green bin, the binmen won't take it.

also whats the point in a yearly charge? you most likely won't be using the bin during the winter months.

the food waste also goes in the brown bin with the garden waste which means it goes in the same dustbin lorry, so this is outragious that they now want to charge people.

how will unemployed people pay for this charge.?

how will the old people afford this.?

it should be pay as you go, as your not gonna use it every week.

also, whats gonna happen if you throw a pot plant, bunch of flowers away will the bin men refuse to take it?.

this will encourage fly tipping of garden waste, or it will encourage people to leave their gardens grow wild.

[snoopy17]

recycling should be free.

most people's garden waste is their tidyt up waste. A few leaves and clippings here and there. I will not pay for this sservice as it will encourage them to charge you for the blue and green bin.

I will hid my garden waste at the bottom of the green bin, which will defeat the purpose as it means less recycling will be done.

[Rockets]

I suspect the council's thinking here is if you have a garden and need a brown bin you can probably afford to pay for it to be emptied....all part of their Corbynista agenda.....

[tomskip]

I think if you have a garden in SE22 and need a brown bin emptied weekly to deal with all the cuttings, then you probably can afford ?30 per year for having that waste taken away. I'm not sure I know what a Corbynista agenda is but local authorities have to find a way to pay for schools, social care and everything else while having their budgets cut and cut again under the Conservative austerity "we're all in it together" policy.

[Asset]

I have a garden, I fill my brown bin maybe 3 times a year. Rest of the time it has 2-3 food waste bags in it when it's emptied weekly.

[James Barber]

Hi tomskip,

I'm sure for many you're right.

But it is a new additional form of regressive taxation. Many who have houses with gardens have low incomes. Also many hundreds of council properties with gardens in SE22 with people on benefits who will find ?30 a struggle. Similar numbers of social rented Housing Association properties with gardens.

At least taking the money to run this service from Council Taxation is flexed based on the capital value of the property in 1990. So those living in large properties pay more. Their were savings found that the Labour administration chose not to make that could have funded this OR given an exemption for people on low incomes.

[Rockets]

Tomskip....

Corbynista agenda....

2.99% council tax rise

8.00% GLA rise

Extension of double yellow lines to create parking pressure across the area to help justify stealth taxes...

?125 a year for a CPZ parking permit sold on false and misleading info

?30 a year to have your brown bins emptied

Trying to sneak green space car park parking charges through without anyone noticing.....

....all under the umbrella of ?central govt cuts?.

I get it that councils have lost funding (and I am not suggesting the Tories are any better) but at some point that narrative wears a bit thin as a catch-all excuse for their actions. We are seeing the first buds of the Marxist agenda now anyone other than the hard left has been forced out of the Labour Party, so if you own a car or have a garden expect your council to come after you and stealth tax you. They will say ?but our charges are the lowest across the capital? but this is just the start.

As Stealers Wheel so aptly put it...Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right....

[TheArtfulDogger]

If I may add to what Tomskip Wrote:

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> Tomskip....

> Corbynista agenda....

>

> 2.99% council tax rise

> 8.00% GLA rise

> Extension of double yellow lines to create parking

> pressure across the area to help justify stealth

> taxes...

> ?125 a year for a CPZ parking permit sold on false

> and misleading info

> ?30 a year to have your brown bins emptied

Putting your garden waste in your neighbours bin ... Priceless

For everything else there is Mastercard (other makes of credit cards are available when paying off the council)

[Lebanums]

slarti b Wrote:

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> I heard that, if you paid the fee, you would get a

> sticker for the brown bin. The paper sacks would

> continue but would need to be purchased.

>

> I can see the logic in charging for what is

> effectively a garden waste service but there needs

> to be some advance communication about this and

> the implication thought though and explained.

>

> Probably worth checking with local councillors, I

> may put something up on their thread.

A sticker? Not sure they have through that through, like the sticker couldn't be removed or the bin swapped "rolls eyes"

On another note, our food waste also goes into the brown bin, what will happen to that?

[AylwardS]

Councillor McAsh has posted this in response to questions on the Councillors thread.

Hi all

The garden waste charge collection will be introduced from 3 June, not April. There will be communication to everyone in properties with kerbside collection this week, and an FAQ section will be put on the council website this month to better explain the new system.

In the meantime, let me cover a few key points:

- Food waste collection will remain free. The council is buying new food waste containted to ensure that people still have this service.

- The service will be charged per financial year. This means that the 2019/20 charge will be reduced pro rata to ?25 for the first year.

- You can still take garden waste to the Devon Street recycling centre for free.

- Adhesive stickers will be sent to those who have paid in June. After a grace period, the council will remove brown bins without stickers.

Siduhe - do you mean the bags you can buy for ?10 for 20? They will go up to ?15 but I think that's the only change.

Best wishes

James

[singalto]

How is the sticker system going to work?

[Penguin68]

Badly

[TheArtfulDogger]

I'm curious about the cost of implementing this new system

New smaller brown caddies don't grow on trees, and if say 75% of brown bin users take them up then what's that cost ?

The existing brown bins, where people don't want to pay, will then be taken away and then what ? Disposed off or stored, again there is a cost to this exercise

Paying veolia to monitor which bins have stickers on and ensure they get back to the property they came from will add to the bill

Monitoring of waste to make sure garden waste doesn't end up in green bins or dumped will require more enforcement officers, again at a cost and possible intrusive rummaging through your bins.

Clearing up after garden waste is just dumped which includes, like other boroughs, the removal of abandoned Christmas trees from the streets will again comes at a cost

Weigh that against the loss of revenue from not getting garden waste to turn into compost, the low numbers who will agree to pay the new charge and you have to question if the pros really do outweigh the cons for the council especially as the collection crews will still be emptying food caddies on a weekly basis.

I have a feeling that if the council officers continue to treat residents as a cash point (CPZ, parking fees in parks, brown bin tax ...) then I really wouldn't like to be in the shoes of our current councillors come the next local election unless they do their job and stand up for the people who elected them.

[Penguin68]

But the majority of Southwark residents don't live in leafy suburbs with gardens - those who do should be paying even more for that privilege than they already do through their community charge. Maybe it will encourage them to pave over their gardens and have properly organised lives, without unnecessary greenery blighting the urban landscape. And it will get rid of those nasty flying insects, reduce the hayfever scourge, improving air quality - who wants to smell mown grass or lawn clippings? And we will certainly be paving any front gardens, so we can park our cars and vans. It's all to the good. Help stamp out nature by making it too expensive for the ordinary Joe. Who won't be able to get easily to the parks now if they are not prepared to walk. So that will keep the parks free of the elderly and those with young children. It's just a win win win for everyone!

[spider69]

What happens in the Autumn when the leaves come down. I usually clear the pavement in front of my house and neighbours putting the leaves, and there are a lot, into the brown bins.

With my council tax now raised to over ?2000+ I will not be doing it this year. No one else does it as most of the houses are split into flats. Southwark just let them pile up. Accidents will happen resulting in compensation claims.

[worldwiser]

The garden sacks you pay for seem to be in a section of Southwark's website that deals with flats and estates. Does that mean houses can't use them?

[edcam]

As spider69 says above, I frequently sweep up leaves outside our place and put them in our brown bin, as thee aren't enough street cleaners to cover this adequately. I'm not going to play for a brown bin and do the council's job for them.

Also, other people frequently use our brown bin, despite there being plenty on the street. If some are removed, more of other people's waste will go in a bin which only I am paying for. This is all a very bad idea. I suspect I'll take to concealing the garden rubbish in the green bin. That won't help anyone.

[gumshoe]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions

Haven?t received anything through the post yet but it?s on Southwark?s website now - sign up opens May 1st.

[cella]

I'm confused - if we can't use the brown bins any longer for good waste where does it go? The link still refers to brown bins for good waste. If we can't use the brown bins presumably we can ask for them to be taken away?