Nuneaton and Bedworth residents WILL have to pay for green bin collection

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Green bin charge to rise in Nuneaton and Bedworth as locals set to pay more



The amount locals across Nuneaton and Bedworth pay for green bin collections is set to rise. It has been revealed in budget documents set to be debated next week.

The charge for the previously free green bin collections was first introduced seven years ago. Since then it has cost locals £40 a year to have their green waste collected.

At the end of last year, when quizzed if the charge was going to rise, the council's cabinet member for refuse, councillor Jill Sheppard said that 'no decision had been made yet'. However, the new budget papers show that the charge is rising.

The cabinet papers show that the service is set to see a 12.5 per cent rise in costs. It will take the annual charge from £40 to £45.

Also, in the report, it details a planned review of the refuse collection service. A major factor in this because the council has to introduce a food waste collection service.

Initially it was supposed to come into force this year but the government guidance pushed it back to 2026. The final decision on the green bin charge rise is set to be made at the annual budget setting meeting on Wednesday, February 19.

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Council explains 'disproportionate' charge rise for Nuneaton and Bedworth green bin collections



The 'disproportionate' rise in the charge for Nuneaton and Bedworth green bin collections has been explained. The council has increased the charge that residents pay for the green bin waste service.

The green waste collection has cost locals £40 since the decision was taken to ask people to pay for it back in 2018. But, after April, the fee for this service will rise to £45.

The £5 represents a 12.5 per cent rise, which the Labour group has admitted is 'disproportionate'. But the group, which does not have control over the council but has the biggest majority, said the rise is because it has never been increased before.

In his budget speech, councillor Steve Hey, cabinet member for finance, said: "We propose to increase most fees and charges by inflation.

"Not doing this is bad economics and bad management because costs are always rising and if we don't do it then it causes a false impression where a seemingly large increase is required to make up for all the avoidance of increases in previous years."

Cllr Hey went on: "A classic example of this is, of course, the green bin charge which we are having to increase disproportionately to make up for years not increasing it."

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Council to 'crack on with' major change to Nuneaton and Bedworth service



Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council says it needs 'crack on' with setting up a new food waste collection. The government has told all local authorities that a free food waste collection has to be up and running by April 2026.

This will mean that locals across the borough will be able to put their food waste out to be collected. But, as every other council in the country has to make sure it has a service up and running by the deadline, it means there will be a race to get all of the equipment ordered in time.

At a cabinet meeting, Councillor Kath Price, cabinet member for communities and public services, said: "The legislation and the deadline for us to get this in place before 2026, and we have got the funding in place. One of the difficulties is going to be with the money is that the council is going to be competing with equipment, the vehicles and bins and we need to be retraining staff and recruiting staff.

"So we basically need to crack on with this."

The council has already estimated that it needs that it will 65,000, 30 litre kerbside food waste caddies, 65,000, 10 litre kitchen caddies and 30, 240 litre wheeled bins for communal collection to carry out the service. It will also need eight food waste collection vehicles to cover seven rounds, with one back-up to cover breakdowns as well as a van.

But the Town Hall has been urged to make sure locals not only know about the new waste food collection, but to also educate them to use it too. "Food waste collections are a massive advantage in some areas," resident Keith Kondakor said.

"They really can reduce the amount of food that people waste because if you have to put food waste into a separate bin it actually leads to behavioural change. But that also leads to the problem that we don't know how much food waste this new collection will have until we roll out the new collection system out, so we don't know how many vehicles we will need or how much it will produce.

"Unfortunately the government has done this rather late, we should have had a trial. I do ask we really put out lots of education to actually make sure this is a success so we don't go out and buy loads of lorries and find people are not using the service.

"Also to try and drive the education that people have less food waste." He also asked why, with the potential of the borough council joining with Rugby and North Warwickshire for a 'north council', why all three are not looking at working together on the food waste collection.

Councillor Michele Kondakor was keen to stress that it is the government, not the council, that has said the new bespoke service has to be provided and that these plans first emerged in 2021.

A concern was raised by Cllr Sue Markham if the council had been given enough funds to get the new service up and running. It has received £980,000 from DEFRA to help pay for the equipment for the food waste collections as well as £365,000 grant to get the new scheme off the ground and provide communications about the new food waste service.

"I know that there was a shortfall in funding, but I can see in the report that we have had some extra funding, but have we actually had full funding, if not is there a projected short fall we are going to have to put forward to it, or is it all there?" Cllr Markham said.

Kevin Hollis, strategic director for place and economy at the Town Hall, said: "We have got capital funding, we received that last year, and we were notified in March/April of this year about the extra funding.

"But the revenue costs, that has not been confirmed, we don't know the value of that, that is still yet to come and will be based on a formula for the area. But that has not been notified as yet."

Cabinet members agreed to approve officers starting to plan and procure the equipment needed for the food waste service.