Agenda item

It was agreed to:

(a)  Introduce a charge of £50 per year per 240L green wheeled bin for the collection of garden waste over 50 weeks (break for 2 weeks over Christmas). The 50 week period would start on the 1 November each year. The first year would commence on Tuesday 1 November 2022.

(b)  Existing 240L green wheeled bins which had already been allocated will remain with those households irrespective of whether the householder wished to pay for a future garden waste collection service, to keep costs to a minimum and to enable anyone who was a subscriber to the current free collections to be able to subscribe to the chargeable service easily should they later decide they wish to do so. But waste would only be collected from those households who have paid for the collection service. 

(c)  With effect from 1 August 2022, new subscribers to the Garden waste service would be charged £45 for provision of a green 240L wheeled bin which may be new or reconditioned (second hand).

(d)  A further report to come to September Cabinet setting out how we would reform and adapt our general waste and recyclables collection services, as part of the commitment in the Improvement & Recovery Plan to produce a comprehensive waste and recycling plan. This would include how best to position the authority to move to the standard waste collection model set out in the Environment Act 2021.

The Lead Member for Transport & The Local Environment introduced a report which set out the proposal to charge for garden waste collection and by so doing significantly improve the financial position of the authority.

The Cabinet noted that a majority of local authorities had already introduced charges for green waste collection and the proposal for a charge of £50 per year in Slough was estimated to generate between £700,000 to £900,000 per annum, depending on take up.  The fees were either the same or lower than neighbouring authorities and the new service would be extended from the current 9 month collections to operate over 50 weeks, with 25 collections a year.  Christmas trees could also be disposed of via the collections.  The way in which the scheme would operate was explained and, if agreed, the charging year would commence on 1^st November 2022.

The Cabinet agreed with the principle of introducing the charges to bring Slough into line with other authorities and asked a number of operational questions including payment mechanism and the communications plan.  The recommendations were then agreed and it was noted a report on other waste services and recycling would come to Cabinet in September.

Resolved –

(a)  That it be agreed to introduce a charge of £50 per year per 240L green wheeled bin for the collection of garden waste over 50 weeks (break for 2 weeks over Christmas). The 50 week period would start on the 1 November each year. The first year would commence on Tuesday 1 November 2022.

(b)  That it be agreed that existing 240L green wheeled bins which had already been allocated would remain with those households irrespective of whether the householder wished to pay for a future garden waste collection service, to keep costs to a minimum and to enable anyone who was a subscriber to the current free collections to be able to subscribe to the chargeable service easily should they later decide they wished to do so. But waste would only be collected from those households who had paid for the collection service. 

(c)  That with effect from 1 August 2022, new subscribers to the Garden waste service would be charged £45 for provision of a green 240L wheeled bin which may be new or reconditioned (second hand).

(d)  That a further report to come to September Cabinet setting out how we would reform and adapt our general waste and recyclables collection services, as part of the commitment in the Improvement & Recovery Plan to produce a comprehensive waste and recycling plan. This would include how best to position the authority to move to the standard waste collection model set out in the Environment Act 2021.