New charge means residents will pay for wheelie bins

Residents will now have to pay up to £30 for new wheelie bins or recycling boxes under a scheme to generate £78,000 annually and save millions of pounds over the next decade.
Town Centre wheelie bins  ENGNNL00120140117171658Town Centre wheelie bins  ENGNNL00120140117171658
Town Centre wheelie bins ENGNNL00120140117171658

Anyone needing to replace a lost or broken bin will be faced with a charge from June 1 after the move was approved by Warwick District Council’s executive on Wednesday.

Charges are expected to be £25 for a grey or green wheeled bin, £5 for a recycling box and lid, £2.50 for a recycling bag or £1.50 for just a recycling box lid. Each delivery will also come with a £5 charge.

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The council currently provides replacement wheelie bins, red recycling boxes and bags free to all homes.

It receives requests for up to 6,500 red boxes, 6,500 recycling bags and 3,000 wheelie bins every year with the high demand already creating a £27,000 shortfall in the budget.

And with demand set to increase with up to 13,000 new houses within the Local Plan, members agreed it was simply not possible to go on with free replacements Cllr Dave Shilton said: “We have thought long and hard about this to come up with a standard that is acceptable as we cannot continue in the way we are going.

“A lot of people misuse the boxes - not for recycling but storage and things like that.”

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It is estimated that the cost of replacing containers over the next 10 years could be more than £2.3million.

The charge will apply to all homes as it is “difficult to prove whether a household may or may not be entitled” to a concessionary rate.

Stolen boxes will also carry a charge after it was found police forces are unwilling to give out incident numbers for container thefts as it “would increase crime statistics”.

Members assured that the new plan would be assessed in a year’s time, but were confident the move would go some way to tackling the financial shortfall from replacing containers. The council has spent £165,000 per year on waste containers for the past two years and a charge could generate an annual £78,000.

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Concerns were raised at Wednesday’s meeting of damage by refuse company workers, but Cllr Shilton (Con, Ken) assured any damage by the waste and recycling companies would be covered by them in all instances.

There are also concerns of fly tipping, or that people may use their own containers for rubbish and recycling to avoid a charge. But as these may not meet health and safety standards, workers would be entitled not to handle them.