Holding a public consultation over plans to charge for garden waste collection in Huntingdonshire would have been “immoral” without having other options available, council leadership has said.

Councillor Stephen Ferguson said a “meaningful” consultation on the proposed £57 green bin charge would have needed other options on the table, which he said there were not.

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 the 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.

READ MORE: £57 green bin charge proposed by HDC agreed

The call-in allowed the proposals to be debated again by councillors, and potentially be reconsidered by cabinet.

At a meeting of the district council’s overview and scrutiny joint panel earlier this month, Conservative councillors highlighted their concerns and reasons for calling in the decision.

They argued there was a “lack of evidence” and a “lack of electoral mandate” to introduce the charge, and in particular raised concerns that no public consultation had taken place.

At a meeting of the district council’s cabinet this week (August 24) the administration disputed there was a lack of evidence, with Cllr Ferguson highlighting the number of documents included with the council agenda.

He also said that holding a consultation when they were not able to offer an alternative would be “immoral.”

Councillor Brett Mickelburgh said everyone became a councillor for their own reasons and had their own ‘motivations and passions’ coming into the role.

However, he said once a councillor the “new number one” was the financial stability of the council, and mitigating financial risks.

He said: “No matter how much we may dislike this or think it the least worst option available to us, it will help us to deliver a boringly stable financial outcome without unnecessary financial risks.

“You only need to look around at some other councils that have struggled to deliver a boringly stable financial council and are seeing the risks crystalise.”

Cllr Mickelburgh said he did not like the plans, but said it was important for the council to continue operating to the best of its ability.

He said: “Let’s continue being boring in the finance side as it means we can be excellent everywhere else.”

Councillor Simone Taylor said she had been “very, very uncomfortable” about the subscription service plans initially and said she had been “quite resistant” to the idea.

She also said she understood why the decision had been called in by the opposition, saying she would have probably done the same thing in their position.

However, she said she had to ‘start thinking with her head and not her heart’ and said she knew the council needed to be financially stable.

Councillor Sam Wakeford said it was right they made the “responsible but not popular” decision.

Leader of the district council, Councillor Sarah Conboy, said she wished there was another viable option other than the green bin charge.

She said the district council had looked at all the other alternatives, but said the authority was in the position of either cutting garden waste collection or running it under a subscription service.

Cllr Conboy said: “We have heard how residents feel, we have heard how councillors representing residents feel, and heard from towns and parishes representing communities, I know this is deeply unpopular.

“We would not be introducing this if we had better alternatives, this is the best of the least desirable things for us.”

She said she understood how people felt and that the council would continue to listen as it looked at ways to make the option better, highlighting things such as helping people to compost at home, and to reduce the volume of waste entering the waste system.

Cllr Conboy said they had already committed to engaging with people in the area about how the scheme will work.

The cabinet voted to unanimously endorse its previous decision to introduce the subscription service.