Recycling - garden waste

Deadline for refunds for cancelling 2023/24 garden waste collection

April 2023  Gardeners will be pleased that the increase in the collection charge for green waste for 2023 is just a few pounds. The collection year now runs from 1 June to 31 May and the stickers, which will be sent out during May, can be used straight away.

Anyone who pays by Direct Debit will have their subscription renewed automatically. Other customers will be able to pay from 1 April and should pay the £37.50 per bin no later than 17th May, in order to ensure they get their sticker in time.

From 1 June there are no refunds if a customer cancels the service. In the unlikely event that your circumstances change after payment has been made in April or May, but before I June, the Borough Council should be contacted without delay if the service is to be cancelled and you want a refund.

Green waste customers to be compensated for 2021 collection problems

April 2022   New customers to the green waste collection service for 2022/23 will pay £35, but existing customers will pay only £31.40. The discount will be applied automatically to existing customers renewing the service. The difference in charge is to compensate existing customers for the disruption to collections last year as a result of a national shortage of HGV drivers. Last year the renewal date was pushed forward from April to June to take account of collections missed during 2020.

Direct Debit customers do not need to do anything, new stickers will be sent automatically. Other customers are advised to renew by 30 April to allow sufficient time for stickers to arrive. Customers are advised to put their new stickers on bins as soon as they are received prior to June.

“The decision to increase the charge for garden waste collections is one of many difficult decisions the council has faced this year to help reduce the costs of providing services,” explained Director (Environment and Planning) at the Borough Council, Matthew Bowers. “Like many councils we have a much reduced budget from central Government and our income has reduced substantially, particularly in the last year, while our costs have continued to rise.”

The increase generated much discussion at meetings of councillors at the Borough Council. When the charge for the service was introduced the demand was underestimated, but over time increasing costs have meant that the cost of the service has exceeded the amount billed to customers. In 2021/22 Costs of £1.4 million, and income of £990,000, resulted in a shortfall of £466,000. At £35 this reduces to £335,000, but the charge would have to be increased to £45 to reach break-even.

How does this compare with other councils?

Charges vary dramatically across the county. In North West Leicester the first green bin is free, but in Melton the service has been contracted out to Biffa until 2028. Melton residents pay £78 a year. In the middle there’s Blaby at £41.70, and Charnwood at £50. When Harborough’s charge was increased the council said that it could no longer subsidise the cost and now charges £55, £10 more than the HBBC break even cost.

Borough Council reduces dependency on agency drivers for garden waste collections

January 2022    Many Groby householders greatly value the Borough Council’s garden waste collection service.  It now has 35,000 subscribers currently paying £30 a year.  Over the  last 2 years there have been difficulties maintaining a regular collection at times because of the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and the well publicised shortage of HGV drivers.  

Many councils have run their service with more staff than there are collection rounds, and this has given them a buffer to cover sickness and annual leave.  Up to this year Hinckley and Bosworth Council has relied on agency staff to cover any shortfalls, and this worked well until the recent problems relating to the availability of HGV drivers.  Support has also been provided from DPD for the hired provision of up to five drivers Tuesday to Thursday.  The Borough has now decided to move away from the agency model and recruit two additional HGV drivers, which equates to an over capacity of 11%. 

In addition, the Council has decided to facilitate HGV driver training for suitable interested staff  The total time to achieve a qualified and competent driver is currently estimated to be around 26 weeks due to high demand and licensing delays, but faster training routes are being explored.   

The cost of  training suitable staff equates to £1,345 per driver including licence applications, plus an estimated £5000 to cover their post during training.  The estimated cost in 2022/23 of implementing this change  is £69,000 to recruit two new drivers,  £18,000 to incentivise suitable interested staff to progress to drivers, with a further  £17,000 for 2021/22. 

August Bank Holiday garden waste collections

August 18 2021   People living in Groby and Ratby may not receive a garden waste (brown lidded bin) collection on Bank Holiday Monday due to ongoing HGV driver shortages. Residents across the borough are urged to present their garden waste bins as usual and the available crews will endeavour to service as many bins as possible. 

Garden waste collections still disrupted

 August 13 2021  The Borough Council says that it only has sufficient drivers available to complete around 75% of the rounds in Groby and Ratby on Monday 16 August.  This will result in some garden waste collections being missed.   Any garden waste not collected next week cannot be collected until the next scheduled collection days in two weeks’ time.

Matthew Bowers, Director (Environment & Planning) at the Borough Council said: “ We apologise to all those customers affected, and assure anyone affected their subscription will be will be extended to cover this disruption. Once again we thank you for your patience at this difficult time.”

Residents living in Groby and Ratby should present their garden waste bins as usual and the available crews will endeavour to service as many bins as possible.

Recycling centres are open and residents do not need an appointment to attend. 

March 2021

Garden waste collections still good value despite £6 increase

A 25% increase in the cost of Hinckley and Bosworth’s garden waste collection service may sound like bad news

 But, at £30 per annum from 1 June, it still represents good value compared to the service provided by some other 

local authorities. The Government website says “Some councils provide a home collection service for garden waste 

- there may be a small fee for green waste collection.” Although some councils make no charge, for the people of 

Harlow, who were shown to be paying £96 per annum a couple of years ago, that may have been an 

understatement. They are no doubt pleased that the council cut the cost to £42 last year, with the portfolio holder

 for environment admitting that “the cost has been too high for too long.” Sunny Eastbourne residents face a £70

 charge this year.

The £24 charge hasn’t been increased for 5 years, and the start date for the new year has been put back by two

 months to the first of June to compensate customers for the collections missed when the pandemic hit in the 

spring of 2020. The service now runs from 1 June 2021 to 31 May 2022, though subscribers can renew from 1 

March onwards.

“The £6 increase is to reduce the level of subsidy required from other budgets,” explained a spokesperson for 

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. “The garden waste service last year cost £1,411,350 to run. The income

 from garden waste subscriptions was £780,000, so subscriptions currently only represent around 55% of the cost

 of providing the service.”

April 2020

Garden Waste Service resumes 

The garden waste collection service will resume from Monday 27 April.

The Borough Council suspended its garden waste collection service on March 23 due to staff shortages arising from the coronavirus pandemic. Staff were diverted to ensure the refuse (black bin) and recycling (blue lidded bin) collections continued as normal throughout the pandemic.  However, this has been kept under constant review and staff levels are now in place to enable the service to be reintroduced.

Subscribers to the service are asked to present their bins before 7am on their usual garden waste collection day. This is particularly important during the catch up period during May. During this time, crews will not be able to return for any missed collections as the time taken to return for a missed bin could mean many others are not emptied.

The amount of waste being collecting has increased by up to 30% and the crews will be unable to take any extra garden waste or residual waste (brown and black bins) and therefore residents should only present their wheelie bins and the lid should be closed (no extra sacks). Additional dry recycling can be placed in clear sacks and placed beside the bin together with large pieces of cardboard if flattened.  

Leader of the Council, Councillor Stuart Bray explained “We would like to thank everyone for their patience during what has been a challenging period for operational services.  Particular credit goes to our crews and front line staff who have worked tirelessly and have continued to empty 53,000 refuse and recycling bins every week throughout this crisis, despite reduced staffing levels. 

“We are all keen to reintroduce this service and we will endeavour to empty all bins presented but I would like to ask all our residents for their patience if we are unable to empty all of them from day one. We are aware that our capacity could be limited again at any time and demand will be higher than usual so we are asking subscribers to please bear with us during May as we try to resume the usual alternate weekly garden waste collection service.”

Residents can check their bin collection day online: www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/collections

All subscriptions have been automatically extended by up to two months for customers to cover the one month period the service was suspended. Garden waste bins displaying 19-20 subscription stickers will now be collected until 31 May 2020.  Garden waste bins displaying the 20-21 subscription stickers will now be collected until 31 May 2021.

April 2020

Garden waste service suspension to continue

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council has suspended its garden waste collection service for the time being.  It has pledged to keep this matter under continuous review and will resume the service as soon as it possibly can.

The garden waste service was initially suspended on March 23 and while it had hoped it would resume soon, unfortunately it is now clear that it is not possible at this time due to staff shortages arising from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Customers will be advised through the usual media channels of the resumption of the service.  The council is diverting its staff to ensure the refuse (black bin) and recycling (blue lidded bin) collections services continue as normal and are unaffected by this change.

The council is unable to arrange refunds to garden waste subscribers but it will extend customers’ garden waste subscriptions automatically to cover the time the service is not running to ensure customers are not left out of pocket.   Customers are advised there is no need to contact the council to arrange this, this will be done for them.

The council apologises for the inconvenience and will restore the service as soon as possible. In the meantime, residents are asked to store or compost their garden waste at home.  Advice on composting is available online www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/compost

February 2017

Garden waste charge gives Council £260,000 windfall

Take up was better than forecast

At a time when Governments are cutting grants and restricting council expenditure and Council Tax increases, and income from the County Council is disappearing, news of an unexpected income windfall must be welcome news to the accountants responsible for balancing the books at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. The good news for them is that the amount estimated to be collected for the current financial year from the £24 garden bin charge is set to be £260,000 more than they had expected.

Charging for the collection of garden waste had been on the cards for a few years prior to the introduction of the fee in April 2016, and was narrowly avoided in 2015 when the Borough Council decided to use income from planning applications to plug the financial gap. But with the County Council withdrawing a grant for the service amounting to £350,000 a year, and Government limits on Council Tax increases, clearly something had to be done.

The consultation

In late 2015 more than 2,000 people gave their views in a survey on the future of council funding in Hinckley and Bosworth. It asked whether residents would be prepared to accept an increase in council tax of approximately £16 per year or alternatively an annual charge for the garden waste service of £35 per year along with additional small percentage rise in council tax.

The £16 Council Tax option would have required the council to carry out a local referendum at an approximate cost to taxpayers of £100,000, whatever the outcome. If a referendum resulted in a ‘no’ vote, then the council would be obliged to introduce a charge for garden waste in order to meet the shortfall.

Overall, 73% of people who took part said they would vote in favour of the council tax increase in a referendum, but only 40% of residents overall said they would continue to use the garden waste service if a £35 annual charge was introduced.

The goalposts moved

By the time the borough had to set the level of Council tax for 2016 the Government had moved the goalposts and it became possible to raise an extra £5 from Council Tax without a referendum, but a separate charge would be needed for garden waste collection. This was the route taken, ignoring the fact that 73% of respondents in the consultation had indicated they would prefer the bin charge to remain part of Council Tax even if this meant an increase of £16 a year. The decision taken was to introduce a £24 brown bin charge and increase Council Tax in line with the new Government guidelines.

The cost of providing the service for 2016/17 is forecast at around £26 for each of the 41,000 properties eligible for the service, or £8 per property just to make up the shortfall caused by the withdrawal of the grant by the County Council. The budget set by the Council assumed that only 20156 bins would be paid for, despite the consultation suggesting that 16400 (40%) might pay as much as £40 and 73% would pay £16.

The 2016 take up

Although, just like other surveys and polls, the overall consultation response was only about 5% of households eligible for the service the result seems to have fairly reflected the view of residents. The latest figures indicate that more than 73% of eligible properties have now subscribed to the garden waste collection service.

The total income collected as at 31 December 2016 was £747,000. Although this is nearly £400k more than the £350k grant withdrawn, the forecast net income for the year is £260,144 more than the budgeted net income once everything is taken into account. Given that the consultation indicated that 73% would pay £16 a year the forecast of a 49% take up seems overly pessimistic, and is one which has cost subscribing households £8 extra this year.

But that is with the benefit of hindsight and the spokesperson added that “This was an unknown situation and we based our original estimates on the experience of other local authorities for take up on their schemes. Yes in hindsight we could be seen as pessimistic in the original budget setting as to the take up of what has proved to be a very popular service with residents possibly due to a lower cost than most charging authorities.”

Although the original bogey man responsible for the introduction of a charge was the County Council as it struggled to balance its own books by dropping the £350,000 grant, the focus has now widened to encompass the Government squeeze.

“The charge is not levied in relation to a one off loss of income, but over the life of the financial strategy,” explained a spokesperson. “The Council has a four year Medium Term Financial Strategy for all its finances and the garden waste charge is an element in seeking to balance the declining external funding from Government and Leicestershire County Council who also have declining government support.” Revenue Support Grant funding to the Borough Council from the Government will be slashed from £1.25m in 2016/17 to £83,975 in 2019/20.

The future

At the moment there is no master plan to make the service self sufficient through charging and eliminate the contribution from Council Tax. “There are currently no plans to increase/decrease the charge in future years but this will be something for members to decide each year taking account the circumstances at the time and the advice of officers,” the spokesperson added.

The garden waste charge is not ring fenced and so the 2016 windfall surplus income will be allocated to reserves or balances to fund council services. Unless there is a further, but unlikely, increase in the number of subscribers there will be no further windfall in 2017/18 as the budget will be set to reflect the fee at £24 and the higher than anticipated uptake. So gardeners will have to pay up and look happy as it could be a lot worse. Around half of councils now charge for the service. The charges range from a modest £14 to some eye watering figures in the south of England where the 3 most expensive are to be found. If you enjoy your garden don't move to Harlow (£96),Kingston upon Thames(£78) or Harrow(£75).  

August 2016

Price frozen for garden waste service 

THE price for Hinckley & Bosworth’s highly successful garden waste collection service has been frozen at £24 for at least the next two years for customers who sign up to pay by direct debit.

Members of the Borough Council’s Executive set the price of the alternate weekly garden waste collection at £24 for 2017-2018 for everyone who opts into the scheme and froze the price for 2018-2019 for customers who have signed up to pay by direct debit by 31 January 2017 at its meeting this week (24 August).

As a further incentive, all direct debit customers – including the thousands of households who have already signed up – will be entered into a prize draw to win next year’s garden waste collection for free.

To be in with a chance of winning, householders must sign up to pay by direct debit by 31 January 2017. Existing direct debit customers for the service will automatically be entered.

Since the Borough Council voted in favour of introducing an annual charge for the garden waste collection service earlier this year, more than 32,000 households  have signed up for the scheme, exceeding all expectations.

Significant financial pressures forced the council to introduce the charge for the service which was previously included within the overall council tax bill. Now only those households who opt to pay for the service continue to receive it.

Anyone wishing to pay for the service by direct debit can choose to either:

•           download a form at a copy of the form from www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/allgardenbinssign; or

•           call: 01455 238141 Mon to Fri 8.30am - 5pm (4.30pm Fri)

Councillor Mark Nickerson, the council’s Executive Member responsible for Neighbourhood Services, said: “I would like to thank everyone who has signed up to continue to recycle their garden waste. By turning this waste into compost we are able to reduce amount of waste going to landfill which the County Council has to pay to dispose of. This price freeze has been introduced to ensure as many people as possible continue to recycle their garden waste.

“By signing up to direct debit, residents help to keep our costs down, and rewarding 50 people with a free service for a year is our way of saying thank you to these customers.”

Anyone who chooses not to continue to receive the garden waste service does not need to notify the council. Households can keep the garden waste bin if they wish to, but it will not be emptied unless the annual charge has been paid.

The council will make one collection of all unwanted garden waste bins within the next few weeks. Residents will be notified of the collection days for unwanted bins in their street via a 'hanger' notice, which will be left on their black refuse bin a fortnight beforehand. The unwanted brown bins will then be removed two weeks later, on the next refuse collection day.

March 2016

£24 charge approved for  garden waste collection service

Householders in Hinckley and Bosworth are being urged to sign up for the garden waste collection service before the beginning of April in order to ensure their garden waste bin continues to be emptied.   

Last month the Borough Council voted in favour of introducing an annual charge for the popular garden waste collection service of £24 per bin per year from 1 April to 31 March 2017. 

Anyone wishing to pay for the service can choose to either: 

•           sign up online 24 hours a day at: www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/gardenwaste; or

•           call: 01455 238141 Mon to Fri 8.30am - 5pm (4.30pm Fri) and select option 2 

Upon receipt of payment, a bin sticker will be supplied which should be stuck onto the bin as the collection crews will only empty the bins displaying the correct sticker. Collection days will remain the same as at present. 

Anyone who chooses not to continue to receive the garden waste service does not need to notify the council. Households can keep the garden waste bin if they wish to, but it will not be emptied from April onwards unless the annual charge has been paid.  The council will make one collection of all unwanted garden waste bins in autumn 2016. Information about this collection will be attached to refuse bins nearer the time.

February 2015

More than 2,000 people gave their views in Hinckley and Bosworth with 73% supporting an increase in Council Tax rather than the introduction of a charge for the collection of garden waste.  Nevertheless the council is to consider a £24 brown bin charge at it's February meeting. 

Borough Council press release - Budget in 2016 and Beyond 

THE Borough Council will increase its council tax charge for 2016/17 by a little over four per cent - if the full Council agrees at its meeting on 18 February. 

This means the average Band D council tax (including the Special Expense Area) for the Borough Council would increase by £5, resulting in a charge of £117.09 for the year. This figure would be supplemented by the charges levied by Leicestershire County Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Fire Authority. 

The government has very recently given dispensation to those councils who have low levels of council tax (in the lowest quartile) to enable a rise of up to £5 a year, in recognition of their prudence. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council for 2015/16 had the joint eighth lowest council tax in the country and will remain well within the lowest quartile, even if it maintains increases of £5 a year for the next three years. 

In addition to the council tax increase, the significant financial pressures faced by the council mean it will also seek approval to introduce a £24 annual charge for the collection of garden waste. When this service was introduced some ten years ago, residents were advised that a charge may be applied in future. The council has managed to keep the cost of providing the service within the council tax charge during the ensuing period, but ongoing reductions in government funding mean that it must now consider introducing a separate charge. 

From 1 April, those residents wishing to continue using the service would need to pay this charge to have their garden waste bin emptied. The annual charge would cover 25 collections between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017. This would work out at only 96p per collection (or £2 a month). 

For those who choose not to continue using the service, the council would make arrangements to collect their brown wheeled bin during the autumn. The collection date information would be provided in due course. 

In addition, the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy, covering the period up to and including 2019/20, will include a commitment to make efficiency savings of £175,000 a year from 2017/18, rising to an annual figure of £250,000 from the following year, as part of an agreement with central government to secure a four year ‘deal’ to ‘lock in’ levels of government grant.  

Overall, this package of measures, if approved, will enable the council to plan ahead with much more certainty over the next four years, to use the surpluses generated to maintain and improve services year on year and to introduce other priority projects and initiatives suggested by local communities. 

Commenting ahead of the meeting, Cllr Miriam Surtees, Executive Member for Finance said: “The council strategy, when in place, will ensure that the borough can face the future with confidence. Without these measures the council would have faced deficit and uncertainty. In addition, efficiency savings will mean we can maintain council services, balance the books, and plan for the future".

December 2015

 73% of respondents  support a 16.67% council tax increase 

More than 2,000 people have given their views on the future of council funding in Hinckley and Bosworth.  The survey attracted 2150 responses and attracted views from residents living in every ward of the borough, around 40% of which were submitted online.

Residents were previously advised the option to increase council tax by £16 equates to 16.67% of the Borough share of £95.96 per year per household. If this option is selected then the council will be legally required to carry out a local referendum, as the increase in council tax will be over the 2% referendum limit.  

Overall, 73% of people who took part said they would vote in favour of a 16.67% council tax increase in a referendum.  There was some variation by area from as low as 67% of people living in the ward of Barlestone, Nailstone and Osbaston saying they would vote yes to as high as 84% of residents from Markfield, Stanton and Fieldhead saying they would vote yes.  Between 69% and 76% of residents from Hinckley said they would vote yes and in Burbage between 75% and 78% of residents said they would vote yes in a referendum. 

However, only 40% of residents overall said they would continue to use the garden waste service if a £35 annual charge was introduced.  This dipped to a low of 29% of people living in Barwell to a high of 57% of people who responded from Cadeby, Carlton, Market Bosworth and Shackerstone saying they would continue to use the garden waste service if there was an annual charge of £35. 

Now the results of the survey will be analysed and considered by Members in January before a final budget is set by Council in February. 

Council Leader Mike Hall said: "I'm very pleased with the number of people who have taken the time to complete the consultation and for providing us with such a clear result. We are still finalising our budget and trying to minimise any potential Council Tax increase. 

“Our grant settlement from Government should be revealed later this week, and we will then be in a position to finalise our budget for next year, and calculate any council tax increase that may be needed. 

This budget will be scrutinised in January, and is scheduled to be finalised at a meeting of Council on 18th February.”

November 2015

Garden waste consultation-what do you think of it so far?

Readers of a certain age may well respond with 'rubbish' and some might say that's a fair assessment. Last month the Spotlight reported that householders were to receive a questionnaire asking for their opinion about the future funding of the garden waste collection service.

Residents were to be invited to select their preference from two possible options and return the survey to the council by Friday 30 October or complete the survey online at www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/fundingsurvey. The deadline came but for many the questionnaire didn't, and at the November Parish Council meeting only one member said that he had received it. On 28 October a spokesperson for the Borough Council said that “There was a slight delay with the printing of the questionnaire, which had a knock-on effect with the delivery to residents. However, we have extended the deadline to Friday 6 November so that people still have the opportunity to take part.”

The scale and real cause of the problem may have become more apparent in the following couple of days and by 30 October a decision had been taken to include it in the Borough Bulletin with a new deadline of December 11th. “The survey - called Difficult Times, Difficult Choices –should have been delivered to every home in the borough during October,” a new statement explained, “but the council has become concerned that the third party contractor employed to complete the delivery has failed to post a survey to every household as they were required to do.” Feedback has enabled the Council to confirm that some deliveries were made in Groby but presumably there is no way of assessing the scale of the non-delivery.

The survey asks whether residents would be prepared to accept an increase in council tax of approximately £16 per year or alternatively an annual charge for the garden waste service of £35 per year. The garden waste charge option would be introduced alongside a council tax increase of 2% (around £2.20 per year for a band D property). The new annual charge would be for 25 collections a year, alternate weekly excluding Christmas. This will be the equivalent of £1.40 per household per collection, for those who use the service. Those who choose not to pay will have the service withdrawn. This will be in addition to an increase in the council tax of 2% for all households.

If the option to increase Council Tax by £16 is the most popular, then the council will be legally required to carry out a local referendum, as the increase in council tax will be over the 2% referendum limit If a referendum resulted in a ‘no’ vote, then the council would be obliged to introduce a charge of £35 per year for garden waste in order to meet the shortfall.

The choice residents now have to make is not the one presented to parish councillors – although the increase to Council tax of £16 is roughly the same it only covers the garden waste collection. The paper, tins, bottles and plastics bin is not mentioned.

Chief Executive of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Steve Atkinson said: "Although we have already taken action to make £1.5 million of the savings needed, we still have a shortfall that simply cannot be found without severely cutting services. This is not something that the council ever wanted to ask, but continuing reductions in government funding have left us with no option and we are legally required to set a balanced budget and legally required to go to referendum, if we intend to increase our element of the Council Tax by more than 2%. We are asking residents, therefore, for their opinion on the best way to raise what is still needed, to inform the decision which Councillors will take later in the year."

October 2015

Your views wanted on garden waste charges

Last month the Spotlight reported on the question put to Parish Councillors about the funding of the garden waste and household waste recycling schemes. The Chairman had been asked by the Leader of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to consider two options -

a) an optional annual charge for a brown bin and an optional annual charge for a blue bin. The charge for each of the bins could be around £30 to £35 per annum meaning an increased outlay of up to £60/£70 for any household that wanted both, or

b) a flat rate addition to Council Tax which could be around £15 a year per dwelling which would retain the current service and may even expand and improve it. If this option was proceeded with a referendum would be required as it would take the increase in bills above the Government set ceiling.

Members thought that option (b) was preferable. By the time this edition arrives householders may have received a questionnaire asking for their opinion. Residents are invited to select their preference from two possible options and return the survey to the council by Friday 30 October. Alternatively, the survey can be completed online at www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/fundingsurvey.

The survey asks whether residents would be prepared to accept an increase in council tax of approximately £16 per year or alternatively an annual charge for the garden waste service of £35 per year. The garden waste charge option would be introduced alongside a council tax increase of 2% (around £2.20 per year for a band D property). The new annual charge would be for 25 collections a year, alternate weekly excluding Christmas. This will be the equivalent of £1.40 per household per collection, for those who use the service. Those who choose not to pay will have the service withdrawn. This will be in addition to an increase in the council tax of 2% for all households.

If the option to increase Council Tax by £16 is the most popular, then the council will be legally required to carry out a local referendum, as the increase in council tax will be over the 2% referendum limit If a referendum resulted in a ‘no’ vote, then the council would be obliged to introduce a charge of £35 per year for garden waste in order to meet the shortfall.

The choice residents now have to make is not the one mentioned by the Leader of the Borough Council and presented to parish councillors – although the increase to Council tax at £16 is roughly the same it only covers the garden waste collection. The paper, tins, bottles and plastics bin is not mentioned.

Chief Executive of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, Steve Atkinson said: "Although we have already taken action to make £1.5 million of the savings needed, we still have a shortfall that simply cannot be found without severely cutting services. This is not something that the council ever wanted to ask, but continuing reductions in government funding have left us with no option and we are legally required to set a balanced budget and legally required to go to referendum, if we intend to increase our element of the Council Tax by more than 2%. We are asking residents, therefore, for their opinion on the best way to raise what is still needed, to inform the decision which Councillors will take later in the year."

September 2015

Recycling charges – prepare to pay more next year

Higher charges are likely

Last year residents were warned that due to the withdrawal of County Council grants the Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council was faced with introducing an annual charge for the collection of garden waste in 2015. The Borough managed to avoid this and continue financial support for recycling by transferring cash from the Planning budget, explaining that more fees than had been collected than anticipated.

The immediate crisis was over but everyone knew that the issue would have to be revisited when budget forecasts for 2016 were being formulated. Further cuts in County Council grants mean that it is no longer just garden waste that is affected - the recycling of cans, bottles and paper in the blue bins is considered unsustainable without increased income to replace the County Council grants.

At the September Parish Council meeting members were told that the Leader of the Borough Council had asked for the views of members regarding the financing of the service. They were asked to consider which of the 2 following options they would support -

a) an optional annual charge for a brown bin and an optional annual charge for a blue bin. The charge for each of the bins could be around £30 to £35 per annum meaning an increased outlay of up to £60/£70 for any household that wanted both, or

b) a flat rate addition to Council Tax which could be around £15 a year per dwelling which would retain the current service and may even expand and improve it. If this option was proceeded with a referendum would be required as it would take the increase in bills above the Government set ceiling.

The disposal of household waste is considered by many to be one of the key services that local authorities offer. Members considered the two options and thought the flat rate was the most appropriate, with the cost being spread over all households.

If the Borough Council decides to proceed with a flat rate option a referendum would follow to see whether the Council Taxpayers agree to an increase in tax rather than new charges for each recycling bin.

Back in November 2014 the issue of charging was considered by the Scrutiny Commission at the Borough Council, and they considered two alternatives to put to residents - an optional £30 charge for the garden waste bin or the withdrawal of the service. Field Head resident Matthew Lay attended. He is a Borough Councillor for Markfield and also Chair of Markfield Parish Council. He asked a series of questions about the consultation as he thought a third option had not been considered.

He discovered that asking residents to opt in to the £30 garden waste collection required an extra annual administration charge of around £150,000 to ensure the charging regime was effective. The cost of collecting all the unwanted bins would cost an additional £125,000 . And the £30 charge would include VAT. There was the risk that some of the garden waste would end up in the black bin or would result in fly-tipping, all creating additional costs for the local authorities.

He then asked how much the cost would be for each household if the cost were to be added to the Council Tax bill and a universal service retained without the need to opt in. The answer was there would need to be a 10% increase on the Borough precept, which would mean an additional £10.08 per year for the average band D property. There would, of course, be referendum expenses of around £100,000, less than the cost of collecting redundant bins.

Matthew's third option sounds very much like option (b) that nine months later Groby Parish Council members favoured. But when he and Councillor Bessant proposed the third option in November it was rejected by a majority of other Scrutiny Commission members. Shortly afterwards the consultation was put on hold and in any event the use of the planning income windfall meant that there was temporary relief from any charges increase, albeit temporarily.

January 2o15 

The Borough Council has confirmed that there will be no charge in 2015/16 for garden waste collection as they have adopted the option reported in December.

December 2014

Decision imminent on garden waste collection charge?

Residents who value the garden waste collection service will soon know whether or not they will have to pay for it in addition to their normal Council Tax bill. A charge of £30 has been suggested to make up the shortfall in the annual grant received from Leicestershire County Council, but at the next Borough Council meeting on December 16th another option will be put forward.

"Until now the service has been funded through recycling credits provided by the County Council. The withdrawal of these credits next year means the Borough Council will have to fund the £350,000 cost of the service from other sources or lose the service altogether," explained a spokesperson. It appears that the council coffers include substantial additional income that has been generated by the fees received in respect of large planning applications and Members will be asked if they want to fund the service from this income. "It’s important to note that the funding would come from additional income and not from an underspend," added the spokesperson.

This will no doubt be a controversial issue as the additional planning income could be used to boost the Council's reserves. And with the possibility of a further cut in the County Council grant in 2016, this time in respect of the blue bin recycling service, the issue of extra charges is not going to go away. For the moment, however, gardeners who may be happy to keep the £30 in their pockets will follow the debate with interest.

November 2014

Smoke and mirrors

Your brown bin will cost you £30 a year

As shoppers we are pleased when shop prices are stable and aren't rising quickly, but we are nevertheless aware that manufacturers have tricks other than price up their sleeves. One of them is to keep the price of a product the same but reduce the amount you get. When Which, the Consumer Association, conducted an investigation into shrinking products they found many examples of hidden price increases. These included a pack of Birds Eye beef burgers with four fewer burgers in it than before, Pledge furniture polish that had shrunk by almost a fifth and packs of Dettol anti bacterial wipes with fewer wipes.

Manufacturers are under constant budgetary pressure and use the 'less for the same price' strategy to hang onto their market share. You are unlikely to see a 'new smaller pack' flash on the packaging. Local Government finds itself in a similar position as caps on spending, budget cuts and tax freezes or limits are imposed on our local councils. We are told that our Council Tax has been pegged for a further year, but just like the can of Pledge we get less for our money.

No increase in the County Council(LCC) precept may sound like good news but families having to find cash from the household budget to pay for the bus to get their children to school are unlikely to agree. Neither will other groups affected, for example, by changes to concessionary fare arrangements. So some costs are stripped out of the Local Authority expenditure and transferred directly to the taxpayer. But other costs stripped out are passed indirectly to the taxpayer through a middleman, to other councils.

Keeping the roadside tidy

Grass cutting is an example. The County Council decides it will reduce the number of times it will cut grass on roadside verges. If a Parish Council wants to retain the better service it has to pay for it.

The amount that LCC pay Groby Parish Council towards cutting the County Council’s verges is already subsidised by the Parish to give a better standard of service, however this sum is now to be halved, which will put a burden of an additional several thousand pounds on the Parish council’s expenses in order to achieve the same standard. The Parish Council may then have to increase it's Parish Precept in order to achieve the same level of service and this increased precept would end up on the same Council Tax bill as the County Precept. There is no cut in public expenditure, just a little smoke and mirrors to move the cost from one part of the bill to another or, of course, to pay the same and settle for a reduced service for the same money. The customer chooses.

Double taxation for libraries?

The library service is one of the most publicised of these price adjustments. In order to save £800,000 a year the County Council has to cut services. If this is unavoidable then most people would agree that it is more reasonable for libraries to take it rather than, say, services for the sick, disabled, disadvantaged children or the vulnerable elderly. But get the smoke machine going and pull out the mirrors again, as the electors are presented with options that mean the costs don't go away but just get paid in another way. So we have the concept of community libraries for anyone who doesn't live near one of the large libraries which will be saved. They will of course continue to contribute towards the cost of running these larger libraries for the benefit of those who live close to them. But if they want a community library in their own village they will have to pay for that as well, a situation which representatives of Braunstone Town Council described as 'double taxation' at the recent Libraries Scrutiny Panel meeting. Villages may decide to pay for their community library through a small monthly increase in their payment to the parish council, but they will have to supplement this with fund raising in the community as the County Council phases in the withdrawal of financial support.

There's more to come

Hooray. No increase in the County Council tax precept, just dip into your pockets to pay for grass cutting, libraries and there's more to come. It isn't over yet. It's likely that from next summer you'll have to pay to have your brown garden waste bin emptied. The Borough Council decided not to impose a charge when they considered it a few years ago but times and circumstances have changed. So prepare yourself for a new £30 charge for the first bin and £20 for the second, a fee that puts the modest cost of keeping the library open into perspective.

Since 2006 Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council has received recycling credits from Leicestershire County Council. These credits are incentives to waste collection authorities to implement effective recycling arrangements, thus reducing landfill and saving Leicestershire County Council incurring disposal costs and landfill tax charges. The rate payable for 2014/15 is £49.97 per tonne. Leicestershire County Council's Medium Term Financial Strategy (February 2014) identifies the need to make a saving in 2015/2016 of £1,480,000 from current expenditure levels.

Leicestershire County Council have advised they intend to cease payment of recycling credits for green waste from 31 March 2015. For the Borough Council the net impact of this reduction in funding would be reduction £345,792 per year based upon 10,988 tonnes of green waste collected in 2013/14. Some other Leicestershire councils already make a charge, with Melton Borough Council being the most recent with a fee of £47. The reduction in recycling was not significant as the residents who do not pay for the service now take their garden waste direct into the household waste and recycling centres.

There will, of course, be the customary consultation to ensure the whole process is legal. “It’s going to be published in the next edition of the Borough Bulletin which will be delivered from 25 November to 14 December,” said a spokesperson for the Borough Council. “People can either fill in the coupon printed in the Bulletin and post it back or fill in the survey online. Once the survey is live, the link will be www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk/brownbinsurvey. The survey link will go live from 25 November. The survey will be open until the end of December.”

It's acknowledged that the change may have an adverse impact on reputation of the Council, so a communications strategy will be put in place to ensure reasonableness of charge is communicated and the impact on other council services of not introducing this charge.

So what's next?

Tucked away in the same report is a warning that there could be more of the same on the way. Leicestershire County Council have also indicated that in the future they may also reduce the recycling credits payable for the dry recycling which goes in the blue bin. If these were totally removed then the potential additional annual funding loss is estimated at £484,109 based on 2013/2014 tonnages. Therefore the total impact on the Hinckley and Bosworth budget would be around £830,000. To put it another way the Borough would have to find the same amount of savings from it's refuse collection budget as the County Council has had to make to its library budget.

July 2014

Changes to recycling services

Changes are being made to Hinckley & Bosworth’s successful recycling service to meet stricter government regulations and to help maintain the high levels of recycling already achieved by residents.

From this autumn, new standards to improve the quality of recyclables will be brought in at the Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) where recycling loads are taken for sorting. As a result, it is expected that loads containing the wrong materials could end up being rejected by the processing contractors and sent to landfill, leading to greater costs for councils.

This will be followed in January 2015 with the introduction of new recycling regulations, which mean the Borough Council, in common with all other waste collection authorities in the country, will be required to collect waste paper, metal, plastic and glass separately unless it can demonstrate that it is not practical to do so.

Rather than changing to a new and more costly collection service, the council wants to continue with the single recycling ‘bin and caddy’ service, which has proved very popular with residents. So it is taking steps to encourage residents to recycle the correct materials in the correct containers to reduce contamination levels, which will also help to keep costs down for the council taxpayer.

 A large bin sticker featuring an easy reference guide to what should and shouldn’t be included in the recycling bin is being attached to every blue-lidded recycling bin in the borough commencing in July. The sticker is designed to help reduce the risk of unsuitable materials contaminating recycling collections and to ensure items are placed in the correct container.

This means:

Paper and card must be placed in the inner caddy and not in the main recycling bin

No plastic carrier bags – including items tied in bags inside the bin

No black plastic – this is already low quality material and is unsuitable for further recycling

No rigid plastics such as children’s toys

No metal items other than cans and tins – other metal items such as pans, kitchen utensils and knives are not suitable for recycling

To reduce contamination, any recycling bins containing unsuitable materials or general rubbish such as nappies or food waste will no longer be collected. Instead, residents will be asked to remove the unsuitable items and present the bin again on their next collection day.

Executive Member for Neighbourhood Services at the Borough Council, Councillor Bill Crooks said: "Residents of the Borough are in general very happy with the 'One Container' recycling collection instead of having their properties cluttered up with numerous boxes and bags.  To change back to boxes and bags would cost Council Tax payers considerable sums as it would mean purchasing new containers.

“I urge residents of the borough to take notice of the new regulations which have been brought in and to study them. A copy of the list of items that can be recycled has been fixed to the lid of all the recycling bins.  This will help the borough to meet the new targets set and continue with their brilliant recycling record, by residents only binning the items on the list".

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September 2012

Will you pay £15 extra for your brown bin to be emptied?

In the last few weeks you will have received the latest edition of the Borough Bulletin published by Hinckley and Bosworth. By the time you read this you may have consigned it to the recycling bin, so it's now being processed at the plant in Coventry. You may not have paid much attention to the Priority Survey in the centre pages and like most people may not have taken time to complete it and send it to the Council. Last year there were only 502 responses, so if there are issues in the survey you feel strongly about it is well worth you completing the questionnaire and encouraging your neighbours to do the same. 

In the preamble the Council explains that further ways have to be found of saving cash or generating more income, adding that your help is needed in identifying how to do this without impacting on the services that are most important to you. Your views will be used to help set budgets for 2013/14. 

Generating extra income

The survey covers a whole range of Borough activities and services but only includes two estimates of the extra income that could be generated by the changes proposed. One relates to car parking charges, which has options for freezing current charges for another year or increasing them by 5% to raise an extra £30,000. 

The other, tucked away in a section on minimising the negative impact on the environment, suggests the introduction of a charge for collecting and recycling your garden waste The Council is rightly proud of it's achievement that 52% of waste is recycled with only 48% going to landfill. But the latest estimate is that 25% of the recycling is garden waste. Without the garden waste the recycling figure drops to just 36%. 

If a new charge is introduced it could be of up to £15 per annum. Many councils make similar charges and locally this could generate an estimated income of £175,000 to £200,000 a year. The irony is that the Council wishes to maintain it's national position as having the 10th lowest Council Tax level, but this will be little comfort to residents who find that their services are reduced unless they pay an extra £15 in addition to their Council Tax. 

The village of Groby is on the fringes of the Borough area and many may feel that the Parish is overlooked when it comes to spending money and that many of the issues raised in the survey have little relevance for the village. The garden waste service is appreciated and well used locally because of the nature of the post war housing development and the relatively small proportion of homes without gardens, unlike some other areas. Many of those who make the most use of the service have homes with larger gardens attached to houses with higher capital values that already pay more Council Tax than homes without or with small gardens. Well tended gardens generate more garden waste and, along with the communal flower beds financed by the Parish precept and not the Borough, help create a better environment for all who live in the village. 

Minimising environmental impact?

The garden collection service has been refined over time and many will remember the early days of green bags. How much the local environment has benefited from the virtual elimination of the burning of waste in the garden or the dumping of it under hedgerows is difficult to quantify, but the likelihood is that this will increase. An occasional user of the service who opts not to pay £15 will need to make alternative arrangements to meet these occasional needs for waste that cannot be composted, either by sharing a bin with a neighbour, driving 12 miles to a recycling site or doing something else with it. It could be argued that a £15 charge is unlikely to minimise negative impact on the environment as the survey suggests but have quite the opposite affect.

The question which some residents may ask is whether this is the thin edge of the wedge, and the start of a process which introduces more charges for waste disposal over time. Although Governments have always denied that a 'bin tax' could be introduced with micro-chipped bins that generate a charge based on the weight of your refuse electors are well aware that manifesto promises can be broken and that at best promises are generally only definitive for the five year life of a Parliament. And once a charge is introduced there is only one way it goes.

Given the task facing the Council you may support the introduction of charging for refuse disposal or alternatively you may object to having a £15 hike in the amount you pay the Council for the same service. Either way you still have time to make your views known even if you have recycled your Borough Bulletin. Until 30 September the consultation can be completed online at http://www.hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk, clicking on the link to Priority Survey 2012. 

June 2012

That recycling question

In the May edition of the Groby Spotlight Laurie Goldberg asked a question about the household waste recycling service. In a letter to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council he wrote "During the collection today in Groby I saw your operatives take each blue bin, remove the paper caddy and empty the contents into the main bin before placing the bin on the truck for emptying into the vehicle. What is the point of us separating dry recycling material if your staff promptly mix them up again? The Council prides itself on its performance in recycling waste - what I have just witnessed calls that claim into doubt." 

Another resident, Peter Cooke, says he has seen the same practice. "The latest issue (no.48) of Hinckley & Bosworth's Borough Bulletin has a 'Your questions answered' article about recycling on page 16,” wrote Peter. "One of the paragraphs states 'However, it is still very important that the paper/cardboard is still kept separate from other items and vice versa.' This is totally contrary to what Laurie Goldberg and I witnessed on our collection days." 

So are things going wrong or are their eyes deceiving them? The Borough Council has an explanation but it is likely that the complainants, along with other residents, will watch future collections very carefully before they are convinced. So what does the Council have to say? 

"Other residents have contacted the council in the past, quite rightly concerned after seeing what appears to be their carefully separated items apparently being mixed with the content of other bins," explained a spokesperson. "We would like to assure residents, that whilst it may look like materials are being mixed together, that is not quite what is happening. The crews use an intermediate bin for transferring paper/card from a number of caddies before tipping this into the vehicle. This can of course give rise to the concern that separated items are being mixed, but paper/card and other materials are then placed into two separate sections at the back of the refuse vehicle – this can be clearly seen on the photo." 

He acknowledges, however, that Laurie does not believe that this is what he saw. "Curiously though, in this case, when we contacted your correspondent to explain this, he insisted that this was not what he witnessed. We were concerned to hear this so, as a precautionary measure, we checked the contents of the collection vehicle when it returned to the Depot and whilst we didn’t find any contamination of materials in that load, we are not complacent." 

Residents are the eyes and ears of the Council and the spokesperson appreciated someone taking time to raise the issue, adding that "we will continue to monitor this closely as part of our service quality checks and thank your correspondent for bringing it to our attention. The Borough's recycling contractors welcome anyone to visit their recycling depot in Coventry to see how items collected for recycling are sorted ready for the next stage in the recycling journey.” If you are interested email your contact details to grobynews@live.co.uk.