Rye householders will pay more for their garden waste recycling, after Rother District Council’s (RDC) Cabinet decided to increase the charge by £5 a year over the next three years.
As the current “brown bin” annual charge of £35 is fixed until 14 July 2020, it looks likely that a fee of £40 will apply after that date, rising to £50 by mid-2022.
Garden waste removal, previously free to residents, generates a hefty £745,000 each year for the Council, although this still leaves RDC needing to find £35,000 for the service. The Council originally wished to raise the bin charge to £50 in 2020, which would have brought in £939,000 — a surplus of £195,300.
One councillor has suggested that discussion took place about raising the charge to £60 in 2021. However, at its Cabinet meeting in November, RDC rejected the steeper fee proposals in favour of the £5 per year increase. This decision seems to have been based on the concern that residents would react unfavourably to a 43% increase in the fee.
On a worrying note for local residents, the RDC’s Cabinet pointed out that “there were no legal restrictions preventing the Council making a surplus from this activity”. In other words, it’s possible that the garden waste bin charge will climb beyond the £50 figure, as is currently the case in Hastings (£66), Eastbourne (£52) and Lewes (£70).
Many UK councils are facing acute funding problems and will employ discretionary revenue-raising powers to protect vital services.
RDC will reportedly save £40,000 per year by not paying East Sussex County Council for four additional grass cuts to Rother’s road verges in 2020-21 — presumably meaning that verge cutting will only take place twice a year in most of the district’s towns and parishes. However, Rye is understood to be one of several town and parish councils that finance their own grass cutting.
Image Credits: David Worwood .
I was unfortunate enough to have had one of my two garden waste bins thrown into the back of the old contractors lorry. They drove off without mentioning this I had to chase them down to find out where it had gone.
It took months to be replaced. Excuses about the contract and moving from one contract period to another year gave them a get out for complete incompetence at getting a replacement to me promptly. Of course there was not going to be a credit for this farce.