The price of a garden waste collection per bin for the 2023 season has been confirmed as £50.
The full details of the Cabinet decision on Wednesday 18th January 2023 confirming the price can be found here: Agenda and decisions
It was also agreed that we will provide an additional collection in January to cover leaf fall and to collect Christmas trees.
Why are has the price increased?
The Council is facing significant budget pressures moving forward. The council spends £720,000 a year collecting garden waste. The current charge brings an income of £420,000.
Monmouthshire moved from a chargeable weekly sack collection to a chargeable fortnightly wheeled bin collection in 2020/21. This was to improve the service for residents, improve health and safety for collectors and reduce the MCC financial contribution following annual reductions of grant funding from Welsh Government.
The original proposal was to charge £35 for the service running March 1st to November 30th. This was consulted on widely and the report was taken through Select Committee and through a Member Workshop where a revised fee of £28 was agreed and taken through Council for approval.
Garden waste collections are a non-statutory chargeable waste collection service. The service can recover full costs of recovery but should not charge for the disposal element.
There was no increase in costs in 2022/23. At £28 the scheme provided excellent value for residents and despite initial concerns about customer loss this resulted in an additional 2000 customers registering. This has increased the number of vehicles and staff delivering the service and with increased costs of vehicles, fuel, wages, receptacles etc the service required a Monmouthshire County Council contribution of £240,000 in 2022/23.
The increase in charge is to cover the full cost of providing the service.
Consultation
A public consultation with garden waste customers and residents took place in December 2022 prior to this decision.
We received 6158 responses.
We asked residents:
| The options below seek to reduce the current subsidy and deliver a viable service for our customers and residents. Please select your preferred option: | |
| Cease collections – I would not use the service as laid out in any of the options above. | 852 |
| Keep the service frequency as it is (fortnightly wheeled bin collection) for £50 per bin per year (20 collections). | 4118 |
| Reduce the frequency of the collections to four weekly for £42.50 per bin per year (10 collections). | 761 |
| Reduce the frequency of the collections to six weekly for £35 per bin per year (6 collections). | 427 |
| Grand Total | 6158 |
The result showed that 67% of residents would prefer to keep a fortnightly at a cost of £50 per bin.
FAQs
Where can I find all the information about the decision?
The details of the Cabinet meeting and the report explaining the background to the price increase can be found here: Agenda and decisions
How much do other authorities charge?
Some local authorities provide a free of charge garden waste collection. This is usually where the local authorities are failing to meet recycling targets and need the additional garden waste tonnage to meet the target which are statutory. Each authority funds waste and recycling services differently and prioritises funding based on wider need across the Council. Welsh Government advocate charging for garden waste collections.
Where local authorities charge, the charge is similar to Monmouthshire. In 2022/23 service charges were: Powys £40, Forest of Dean £45, and Pembrokeshire £52 for fortnightly collection of 240ltr bin. Many more local authorities are reviewing charging for garden waste in response to budget pressures.
How did the consultation run?
The consultation was open from 22nd November to 12th December. Current garden waste customers received an email regarding the consultation.
The results of the consultation were put into a report with a recommendation for the service going forward. This went through a scrutiny process for Councillor decision on the outcome in January 2023.
The results of the consultation and decision process can be seen above.
Why is the price increasing?
The Council is facing significant budget pressures moving forward. The proposed price options will cover the full cost of providing the service.
The service has not seen an increase in price since 2021/22 and at that time a subsidy of £7 per bin was delivered through external grant funding. The original proposal was to charge £35 for the service.
The cost was not increased in 2021 when the service was impacted by Covid-19. We have seen significant increases in service costs in the last year such as increased fuel prices.
Garden waste collections are a non-statutory chargeable service where residents opt-in.
Why is this service not covered by council tax payments?
Garden waste collections are a non-statutory chargeable waste collection service. The service can recover full costs of collections but must not recover costs for the disposal element.
Garden waste collections is a non-statutory chargeable service where residents opt-in. There are a number of options open to residents to treat garden waste that do not opt-in, including, home composting (MCC provide cost price home composters through the reuse shop), delivery of material to one of the Household Waste Recycling Centres, community composting at participating allotments etc.
Why do the different options not provide the same cost per collection?
There are fixed costs of providing a collection service that cannot be greatly reduced while still providing a service.
The collection costs (such as vehicles, bins and staff) cannot be halved by reducing the frequency of collections by halve. Therefore the monthly service option is not half the price of the fortnightly option.
For more information about the current garden waste service please visit our garden waste page