A new charge to collect garden waste in Huntingdonshire is set to be introduced as planned after a bid to stop it failed. 

Huntingdonshire District Council is due to start charging £57.50 a year to collect garden waste from April 1, 2024. 

The authority has said it would be facing a £1.4million deficit without introducing the charge to continue collecting green bins. 

The cabinet officially approved the garden waste subscription service at a meeting last month, but the Conservative opposition ‘called in’ the decision for additional scrutiny to try and pause the plans. 

A call-in decision allows the decision to be debated again by councillors, who could then refer the decision back to the cabinet to be reconsidered. 

The Conservative councillors gave several reasons behind their decision to ask for the charge to be reexamined, including: 

  • “Lack of consultation” with people in the district 
  • “Lack of evidence” and data made available to councillors 
  • “Lack of electoral mandate” to introduce the charge 
  • Claims there was “no clear financial plan” over how the chare would impact the vulnerable in the district 
  • Impact on grey bin waste 
  • Impact on additional use of recycling centres 

At a meeting of the district council’s overview and scrutiny joint panel this week (August 10), Conservative councillors challenged that no public consultation had been held about the plans, and argued there was no democratic mandate to introduce the charge. 

Cllr Stephen Corney said the planned charge was “one of the biggest things to come through” the district council in years and should have been something that was included in a manifesto. 

Cllr Stephen Ferguson (Independent), executive councillor for customer services, said he believed in representative democracy, and that the administration had to take “difficult decisions”. 

He said members had now known at the time of the last election the “financial state” things would be in now. 

Cllr Ferguson also said the previous Conservative administration had not consulted on similar decisions, such as introducing a charge for second green bins in 2013 or increasing parking costs. 

Cllr Stephen Cawley highlighted the district council’s commitment to consider the environmental impact in all of its decisions. 

He asked if the authority had properly considered this when approving the scheme, including looking at the potential impact of more people driving to recycling centres to get rid of their garden waste. 

Officers said “first and foremost” the decision on the green bin charge was financial but said there would be environmental benefits as well. 

They said that by collecting fewer bins the CO2 produced from bin lorries would be reduced. 

They also explained that evidence from other areas which had introduced a similar charge provided no clear evidence to show there would be a “huge number of additional trips” made to recycling centres. 

Cllr Martin Hassall, executive councillor for corporate and shared services, said sending diesel bin lorries around to collect the garden waste was “not the smartest thing to do”, adding that home composting was “by far the greenest thing to do”. 

He said some of the answers around the environmental impact would not be known until around a year into the scheme. He said the authority would measure the impacts and report back to the committee. 

Cllr Simon Bywater said the charge would impact everybody in the district. 

He recognised the proposals from the joint administration to help vulnerable people but said there would also be people impacted who “fall outside that threshold” but were facing increased costs. 

Cllr Ferguson said the district council hoped to introduce a 100 per cent council tax discount for people on the lowest incomes. 

He highlighted that currently the district council only offered people on the lowest incomes an 80 per cent council tax discount, which he said meant people earning less than £86 a week were charged £5 a week in council tax. 

He said he would rather the authority used the charge money to “improve the lot” of people on the “bottom rung” of income. 

Cllr Dr Marcus Pickering asked officers if there were any “viable alternatives” to the garden waste subscription service that could also close the deficit. 

Officers said other options had been explored, including reducing the number of times bins were collected, and the savings of cutting the green bin collection altogether. 

However, they said these did not offer the amount of savings needed to close the deficit, and that the only other option than the charge was to look at cutting services. 

Cllr Ferguson said the joint administration had considered a “selection of unpalatable things” to make the savings needed. 

He said: “When looking at the outcome of all the cuts we would have to make to try and make the savings, [garden waste subscription service] was by far the least worst decision we can make.” 

Cllr Hassall said the garden waste subscription service was also important to be able to pay staff fairly. 

Some staff at the authority, including bin collectors, are currently threatening strike action over pay. 

Cllr Hassall said the district council could not give salary rises without the charge. 

He said they had “inherited a situation” where pay rises have been “really poor” telling the meeting that since 2013 pay awards had been below two-per cent. 

He said: “Staff have had a long history of not being paid properly. I would really like to support allowing garden waste subscription service, to at least have some chance of paying staff in a fair and reasonable way.” 

A vote asking the cabinet not to implement the new charge failed to get enough support, and therefore the charge is now expected to come into place as originally planned.