A controversial new ‘garden tax’ will come into force across Southwark this weekend, despite widespread opposition from angered residents.
From Saturday, June 1, residents of kerbside properties will have to pay a £25 charge to have their garden waste collected by the council, rising to £30 per year after March 31, 2020.
And, although the service will continue to be weekly, the collection days may change to maintain ‘route efficiency’.
The Labour-run council has told residents of all 51,000 properties affected across the borough that the fee is necessary as ‘not everyone who receives it is making use of the garden waste service’ and that ‘it is fairer that only those using the service contribute towards the running of it’.
But this rationale has been slammed by homeowners, who say the new fee is simply a stealth tax on wealth to raise funds for the council’s increasingly cash-strapped coffers.
In leafy East Dulwich, homeowners and tenants alike were fuming about the extra cost, arguing not everyone uses libraries, schools, care homes or leisure centres but – regardless – contribute to public services, and that council tax is banded according to property values.
One homeowner queried how the exercise could save cost given the administration involved in chasing payments and removing and replacing different types of bins.
The Liberal Democrat opposition have also argued that rather than paying up, more people will just turn to fly tipping to dispose of their rubbish.
This view was supported by one angry resident in Peckham, Sarah Baldwin, who said: “We pay council tax for a wide variety of services, and our household certainly does not make use of all the services.
“I am perfectly happy to make contributions towards services I don’t use because it is good for the community.
“In return, I expect others to contribute towards the vitally important function of all forms of waste disposal.”
She went on to say that her small garden produces only ‘a few brown paper sacks of waste a year’, but at least this contributes to the environment and biodiversity.
“Now we are being penalised for that,” she explained.
“It’s tantamount to a garden tax. And that isn’t fair.”
Speaking to the News when the changes were first announced, Richard Livingstone, responsible for the environment portfolio at Tooley Street, said government cuts meant the council was forced to ‘find new ways’ of covering costs.
There has been a charge for garden waste in most other areas for many years, why should it be free? You are charged for other waste disposal and therefore should expect to be charged for this. Buy a composter. Council tax in most London areas is far cheaper than the rest of our green and pleasant land, you should be prepared to pay your bit.
We havn’t had our blue (recycling) bins emptied for three weeks.
You contact Southwark Council who give you a reference number and you know from previous experience that the bin will not be emptied for another week.
Why don’t the Council just do what they are paid to do to start with before bringing in new systems ?
We decided not to keep our brown bin for garden waste, as we do not use it enough. Two weeks ago the refuse collectors took our brown bin from outside our house, and left it on the street, they then tipped our food waste from the smaller bin into the garden waste bin. Unfortunately, nobody came to take the large brown bin, now with food waste in it. It has been sitting on the pavement outside our house for 2 weeks now, the food is a seething mass of maggots, and the smell is unbearable. We complained to the council online, and they wrote back to tell us that the matter will be dealt with by the 26th of July. This on top of the fact that our neighbours fill up their blue recycling bin with household and building waste every week, and the refuse collectors just take it away, even though it is clearly not recycling. What is the point in separating our rubbish if they are just going to take anything ?