As part of the Budget set on February 28th this year, we accepted the recommendation that savings could be found in the provision of sevices for green waste collection.
Members of all parties have expressed both skepticism and support for the move. The Council wil
l now perform a full public consultation on this. The consultation can be found HERE
l now perform a full public consultation on this. The consultation can be found HEREThe consultation, which runs until June 14, 2013, aims to seek the views of as many people as possible about the option of introducing a charge for the service.
The purpose of the consultation is to:
1. Explain why a charge to collect green waste is being proposed
2. Find out how much people are prepared to pay for receiving this service
3. Find out what part of the week people would like their collections to be made
4. How people will dispose of their green waste if they do not use this service.
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My View.
I think a small charge for this service is not unfair given the economic situation. If the outcome is that more people compost their own green waste then that is a plus for the environment.
However, I think it would be a loss to the environment and unfair on those who don’t have gardens, who wish to re-cycle relatively small amounts of green food waste (potato peel etc..) which would inevitably end up with normal waste.
Councillor Michael Roche, Sefton MBC 
Personally I think we already pay enough in council tax to cover collection of green waste. If the council start charging people will just try to dump tree cuttings amd grass cuttings illegally on roadsides . .. Or in their grey bins or more likely in other people’s grey bins. Not everyone has a car to take it the tip or space in their garden to let cuttings and printings to rot down
Please post commnts into the Consultation as well. Cheers
Before raising charges for green bin collections, look at reducingthe number of councellors! do we need so many as most council decisions seem to be made by a small number of people sitting in a private meeting (many of who have not been elected) yet make these decisions.
Then ask themselves why they are trying to charge people more money for a service they are already are paying for.
My ward; Victoria has 3 Councillors, 2 Lab, 1 LD to service 15,575 constituents, making the number of representatives robustly proportionate. Almost all council meetings are open to the public, on very rare occasions a private meeting(or a section of a meeting) may be held where confidential information about individuals are discussed. Committees always have cross-party representatives.
All of the meeting Agendas, minutes and reports can be found here; http://modgov.sefton.gov.uk/moderngov/mgListCommittees.aspx?bcr=1
Senior officers of the council decided to recommend green-waste charging to the Cabinet of elected councillors as part of the £114m per year cuts to services demanded by the Government(40% of the budget). A consultation exercise was ordered by cabinet and no change will happen until the results are considered and a final decision made.
I appreciate your opinion regarding the charges and can’t disagree on that point. I invite you to contribute to the consultation document. I will though pass on your comments to that forum myself.
Cllr Roache,
You have me confused with your comment,
“However, I think it would be a loss to the environment and unfair on those who don’t have gardens, who wish to re-cycle relatively small amounts of green food waste (potato peel etc..) which would inevitably end up with normal waste”.
What you are referring to is the food waste collection which is not the Green Wheelie Bin collection for garden waste. Or is there a move to include the food waste collection in the chargeable garden waste collect?
The Consultation on the Sefton MBC website is a typical Sefton document that ask questions that require information to allow a rational judgement to be made, but fails to provide that information on which the judgement can be made. The information may well be elsewhere within the Sefton website, but I can’t find it and it should be with the consultation.
On the basis of the information that is provided, Sefton needs £22,000:00 to allow a garden waste collection to continue. In terms of Council spending that seems to be not very much. As there is no cost detail, it’s not possible to find out why that sum can’t be raised by a better use of the material being collected.
I know it’s not a correct figure, but using the annual green bin tonnage of a different authority and the land fill tax for next year, from the MWDA site,
if those 22,000 house put all their garden waste through the grey bin, that would be £31,080 in land fill tax. Given the number of households in Sefton, we could be in serious trouble if people reject payment.
Please can we be provided with all the necessary information and statistics on the collection of garden wate in terms of number of green bins, annual green tonnage, cost of collection, cost / income involved in disposal of the green bin contents, contractual obligations that currently exist and penalties for not meeting tonnage requirements if any. Need I go on?
I am, referring to vegetable matter, potato peelings etc.. Personally I cpompost these myself. Thanks you for your comments you make some very valid points and will pass this on to the cabinet member.
I think enough is being charged already in council taxes although i do think it needs to be maybe a service that only operates spring & summer.In the currant climate a lot of people are on the breadline struggling to keep roofs over their heads so another bill to pay is going to be a nightmare for lots of people in sefton,this will probably lead to illegal dumping aswell.
I also think that MP’s and councillors should take a paycut instead of taking more money from people who have very little already am sure this would give local councils more money !!
Thanks for commenting. I will ensure your comments are included in the consultation.
Councillors receive only expenses and the rate has been frozen for three years whilst inflation has been higher, so in real-terms has been cut by around 8%. An unemployed Councillor for example would still receive far less than the rate for income support.