Garden Waste Fees - 50% increase

[Penguin68]

Last year it cost me £40 to arrange for garden waste collection. This year it's £60. That's a 50% annual rise!

Clearly rather more than factoring-in inflation.

And I doubt very much whether Veolia is seeing a 50% increase in that element of the fees Southwark pays them.

I have said it before on this forum, but Southwark is looking to move its revenue streams (c.v. CPZ and traffic fines) away from capped and into uncapped areas - where it cannot be restrained!

No doubt their cheerleaders will once again suggest that I am exercising conspiracy theories. Well, if it looks like a duck...

[richard tudor]

Plus they are asking you to pay almost 6 weeks in advance. In my case my permit expires on 31st March.

[IlonaM]

I think everyone's subscription finishes at end of March. The early contact is to make sure you get your new label in time - some years there have been problems.

[Penguin68]

Plus they are asking you to pay almost 6 weeks in advance. In my case my permit expires on 31st March.

They are asking for pre-payment, but I believe that this will mean that your garden bin will be emptied through to 31st March 2024. If you are preparing accounts it will be shown as a pre-payment in y/e 5th April 2023 for 360 days of tax year 2023-24.

The logistics involved in ensuring that you have a 'paid' sticker for your bin need some lead time - in fact in previous years they did not issue these stickers for everyone renewing until more like April 20th in some instances, so Veolia was instructed to collect bins which did not have the annual appropriate sticker until a late April cut-off.

[Jules-and-Boo]

are you still able to get the brown bags instead of the bins?

I suppose it depends on how much gardening you do and if you need to have a bin - perhaps you could do a bin share on your street and contribute between you?

[jazzer]

In Lewisham for 2023/24 it is rising from £85 to £93.50, a 9.95% increase,

"We have tried to keep our subscription charges as low as possible, however due to increased operational costs imposed upon the service we have had to raise the subscription fee for the coming year to £93.50"

The previous year it rose by £6.25%, £80 to £85.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Seems weird the council doesn't just shake the magic money tree.

[Spartacus]

Remember the good old days when garden waste used to go in the green bin, then the council wisely segregated it out into the brown bin (always seems the wrong way round colour wise) and then when we got used to that, a few years ago they introduce a charge for brown bin collection.

How we all spat our tea out over that on the EDF

Now we're meekly accepting a 50% rise as "Okay because its cheaper then our neighbouring boroughs"

Sigh, wait till the council tax us for all this clean air they are providing 😆

[Lebanums]

It's pretty shocking!

With all the other costs going on at the moment I can foresee a lot of black bags in the green bins.

Thankfully we got rid of our brown bin back in the days when they started charging. We have such a small amount of garden waste that we share the cost with our neighbour to use theirs.

[Penguin68]

Update. I applied for my permit on the day I received the email notification and made the initial post here. I received my permit yesterday (15th March).

[tomskip]

A year ago I bought 20 paper garden waste sacks for £20 and still have about 5 or 6 left despite having a very large garden.

I'd suggest going down that route and the great bonus is you then don't need a fugly brown wheelie bin in your front garden or outside on the pavement.

[first mate]

Tomskip,

I don't understand. Are you saying that if you just get the bags your garden waste will be picked up free of charge and you don't have to pay for that service? Why would you have to pay, now, £60 a year if you have a bin but nothing if you use bags? The bin men still have to lug them to the lorry. Or do you take yours to the dump yourself?

[ed_pete]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2

£20 for 20 - free pick up which you are supposed to arrange but in my experience they will just collect if left out on bin collection day

Get in quick as 50% rise applies to bags as well , going up to £30 for 20 from 1st April.

[Sue]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/garden-waste-collection-subscriptions?chapter=2

£20 for 20 - free pick up which you are supposed to arrange but in my experience they will just collect if left out on bin collection day

Get in quick as 50% rise applies to bags as well , going up to £30 for 20 from 1st April.

 

The link only seems to be to book a collection, not to order and pay for the bags?

[ed_pete]

[Sue]

2023-03-17_10-46-55.png

 

Thanks, I'm clearly more senile than I thought 😭🤣

[sally buying]

Penguin68

My sticker came today after paying in Feb.

Does this mean they are on top of the sticker pile unlike last year.

[malumbu]

Not sure if their is a legal compulsion for the council to take green waste, but it is a nice to have. There are other priorities such as social care and public amenities. You can also compost much of your green waste, as well as the compost heap I'm going to try green manure by leaving weeds to rot in water.

I'm not used a shredder but they are under a ton https://www.toolstation.com/hawksmoor-shredder/p90496?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dc&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwn9CgBhDjARIsAD15h0BnenhO2GPHG6Q4ped7-SwM7ZoKQusxph_dFvJ8vLKpDOxccR_G9BEaAmoHEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[tomskip]

I just put mine out - never more than 2 or 3 at a time - and they are collected. I don't book anything separately. I imagine the £1 per bag is mostly the collection fee? So it's cost me about £15 this year to have my garden waste collected. I do also have a compost heap. Food waste goes in one of those small kerbside bins which I store outside the back door until bin day.

[legalalien]

Just reading through the proposed council income stream adjustments in the budget going to next week’s Cabinet meeting.

They are struggling to balance the budget.

Looks like garden waste charges are going up to £80 next year if approved.

 

https://moderngov.southwark.gov.uk/documents/s117577/Appendix C Income.pdf

[Baroness Millhaven]

So from £25 to £80 in the space of a few years to pay for a service we should actually be getting through our Council Tax.

[Jenijenjen]

42 minutes ago, Baroness Millhaven said:

So from £25 to £80 in the space of a few years to pay for a service we should actually be getting through our Council Tax.

There are very many council tax payers in Southwark who do not have the luxury of a garden, even in East Dulwich, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to subsidise the lucky ones who do.

Edited December 1, 2023 by Jenijenjen

[rjsmall]

49 minutes ago, Jenijenjen said:

There are very many council tax payers in Southwark who do not have the luxury of a garden, even in East Dulwich, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to subsidise the lucky ones who do.

That could be applied to many items of council spending though (eg. should residents without children subsidise playgrounds in parks)  This time of the year a lot of the leaves that go in my brown bin are from the councils trees on the pavement and road that they don't bother to clear.

[Mav]

58 minutes ago, Jenijenjen said:

There are very many council tax payers in Southwark who do not have the luxury of a garden, even in East Dulwich, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to subsidise the lucky ones who do.

The people with gardens are probably already paying more council tax so arguably deserve something back, such as free garden waste collections.

[jazzer]

Currently £93.50 in Lewisham and expected to rise AGAIN in April 2024