Article by Lorna Hughes Liverpool Echo 22 August 2012:

Thousands of Merseyside householders could be charged for having their garden waste collected.

Opponents today described the controversial move as a “garden tax” on Wirral residents.

In the autumn councillors are due to debate the introduction of a subscription service for garden waste collections.

Under the current system, 112,000 homes in Wirral – around 77% – have a brown bin for garden waste but the cost is met by all taxpayers.

The council said the issue was just one of a range of proposals Wirral residents will be asked for their views on in a “comprehensive consultation” over the next few months.

It will be the third such survey in the past three years as the council tries to find £100m in savings over the next three years.


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Should that case arise it will either go in to green bin, cause massive queues at the tip, or get dumped. Don't they ever learn?

No, they don't. Might just as well get rid of the brown bins,which they said we all had to have. What about the services many don't use but still pay for. Rediculous idea, could be the tip of an iceberg, Will those on benefits get free collections and those who aren't have to pay for them?

If they go through with it surely we would then ALL be able to refuse to pay for services we don't use.

I don't have a brown bin, or a green one, never have, asked for one when I got the place, didn't get one so EVERYTHING I throw away goes into a business bin which I pay for, so would I be due twenty odd years of refuse collection refund ?

If all is fair, then why not, Dr.?

Can anyone say what happens to our garden waste on Wirral? Other councils do actually inform what the process involves for the environmetal protection and this payment,is obviously an idea which other councils have brought into play.
Well I think we might have to demand the weekly collection back, of the green bins, if this goes ahead. Presumably the Wirral Council will be putting their two fingers up at the environmetal protection idea because I think the end product is that we can't afford to be paying additional amounts any longer. Little bits here and little bits there all add up and if the council have bad management skills, then it's a bit like me going out and spending too much and expecting 'me mates' to pay it back for me.
This should be in the rant section!

It's now an overall controlled Labour council. They will bash the toffs...you can put money on it.

Agreed Alan, although we don't have to be 'toffs' in Wirral to have a garden.
The annoying thing is, that if anyone can speak properly, write correctly, look after themselves without benefits,keep a standard of living, which once was considered normal at all levels, they are now referred to as 'toffs'. Thoroughly sickening and I think it's about time these so called 'toffs' should rise up and stop being rediculed by the degenerates who think the 'toffs' owe them too much.
Quite often a clear example of 'inverted snobbery' in many who just can't get to grips with fact that Mary could possibly have more than Mandy!

If you live in Heswall,Neston, Parkgate, Irby, Frankby,Port Sunlight, West Kirby,Hoylake, Greasby,and surrounding areas you will be classed as a 'toff' by many from Wallasey, Birkenhead, Tranmere, Rock Ferry,etc and they need to say why because at the end of the day they rely upon those people for so many different reasons, it's impossible to list them all..

thats a rather sweeping statement to make

Too right Dave, that's a massive generalisation.

"The annoying thing is, that if anyone can speak properly, write correctly, look after themselves without benefits,keep a standard of living, which once was considered normal at all levels, they are now referred to as 'toffs'",

I do all of the above yet only live in lowly Seacombe (with no brown bin!) Now does that make me a toff or not? Should I be rising up against being ridiculed in spite of where I live? I'm not sure what I'm relying on people from the 'posher' areas for. Please advise

Generally generalisations,like statistics and verbal promises are not worth the paper they are written on!
I am a toff(eeman) and to be frank every area on(in)Wirral and everywhere else in the country has pockets of reasonably well off and not so well off. The list that Granny posted for example listed e.g. Hoylake, Port Sunlight,Neston et al; all the listed places have areas of deprivation just as much as "lowly Seacombe with no brown bin". Areas are made by communities not the physical area.
BTW if they do bring in the "brown bin tax" I will do what I ought to do now which is make my own compost.

Neston comes under Cheshire West & Ellesmere Port.my daughter is in the Port & she has got a garden waste bin,she hasn't got a garden where's the logic in that.

Thats the best joke I have heard on here for ages!

Have you seen how fat and rich your "local" Labour councillor is? And where they live?
They are only wanna be tories who just couldnt get in!

I often think, when I drive along Vyner Road South, that these people must all be paying the top band of council tax, and yet the road surface along there left a lot to be desired the last time I drove along it.

It wasn't meant to be a joke, and I fully agree with you.

poor or posh, they will all go to the same resting place

I think charged garden waste collection is appreciable. You have said that the garden tax will be met by all taxpayers. What if some of the residents don’t own or have garden, Garden tax will be not fair and burdensome to them.

One should have ones gardener take away the garden waste, or just have ones man to place it in the green bin if the brown bin service is stopped.

Very true sunnyside, BUT not in the brown bin. I tried that with the Mother-in-Law and they wouldn't take her !!

Would appear that they are looking at a charge of £35 per year and it will be an opt in scheme rather than an opt out scheme.

If the current number of people with a brown bin, 112,000, all opt in, then the Council will make £3,920,000. less of course collection costs.

The articul says " Under the current system, 112,000 homes in Wirral – around 77% – have a brown bin for garden waste but the cost is met by all taxpayers." By inference it is questioning WHY SHOULD ALL C/TAX PAYERS PAY FOR SERVICES THEY DON'T NEED OR USE. Good point i thought. It also says "the council tries to find £100m in savings over the next three years." £100m is the exact figure that Wirral Partnership Homes had recently been boasting (on the side of liscard House)that they are spending in refurbishing social housing with new insulation and new kitchens and bathrooms ect. I wish i could have all those things done to my privately owned house and forcibly pass on the cost lots of people by the way of higher C/Tax and or less services for their C/Tax money. Directives from the EU screwing you further.

Wirral Borough Corporation, Yes it is a corporation it has a corporate business plan. A Business looking to do more Business.

Posh in Pensby my axxe.I lived in North End before moving here so posh is the last thing I am.As for brown bins we managed before we had them and we never asked for them.Wheres all the money from the compost and the recycled bits and bobs going to.

£35 would cover quite a few car trips to take garden waste to the tip, for those who can manage that. Of course that would place extra pressure on the tip, with additional disposal skips, costs of transporting the stuff away etc. The fly-tipping possibilities don't bear thinking about.

For several months of the year the brown bins are not much used; I wonder if they could make savings by just running the service between, say, May and October?

I thought the whole intention was to make savings! Now so far as I understand, we already pay council tax for this service which was added on a few years ago. If our council tax is supposedly frozen, how on earth are the Council entitled to even consider , asking us for more council tax, because that is what it becomes. Maybe we could request that they remove and dispose of, our garden waste bins.How much would that cost? We wouldn't want them, would we?

Yes, a big increase in fly-tipping would be on the cards for sure. Town Hall steps would an excellent site in the wee small hours!

In my neck of the woods, they stop the brown bin collection from December to March, which does make sense. During that time they will uplift your brown bin FOC if you phone them with 5 days notice. It seems a good idea and must result in savings. Surely WBC could do something similar ??

If the collection becomes an 'opt in or opt out' senario, it makes no sense either. Mainly because Biffa will still be visiting every street, road, lane in Wirral to collect from those who 'opt in'. No savings to be made just indirectly asking us to pay more to Biffa, who are able to pay their staff trebble time on Bank Holidays! The Council have a contract with Biffa, so the costs should not be an overall 'per head' evaluation.
Agreed the collections could be stopped between December and March. At the moment one collection every two weeks is 25 collections per years. So the charge will be approx £1.50 per empty. So if 6 collections are stopped over winter that would reduce the amount to approx £25 per annum per head.
Each empty must take all of 30 secs! What does that equate to, per hour? Any mathematicians out there? If collections of the brown bin are halted by many in an opt out scheme, there will no doubt need to be an increase in green bin collections! Which seems to bring us back to the beginning, before brown bins were here.

Have I systematically got myself into knots on this?

You make it clear as (garden) mud, Granny.
It does seem incredibly stupid to suggest an opt in scheme as those who opt out than have to dispose of the garden rubbish themselves. The obvious way is to compost which is what I have started to do but not everybody is in a position to have a compost bin or plot due to space etc.
As you rightly point out most would just fill the green bins instead which defeats the object and causes more overflowing green bins with all the inherent problems that causes.The only other option for people will be trips to the tip and with pressure on all countries and thus councils to meet green targets this would have an adverse effect.

Ah well. Whooops...not you Salmon! Wrong thread maybe?

Could be the answer to the council

Here's an idea, Why don't those who want the brown bin emptied on a regular basis, make a private contract with Biffa and not bother with the Council. Why does the council have to get involved?

You could say the same for the household waste and recycling bins.When the brown bins were introduced the cost would have been included in the council tax calculation same as the cost of all other council services.

Probably no garden! Seriously though, the Council has to meet certain parameters for re-cycling. If we all boycott the recycling bins then the Council loses, and has to pay massive fines for failing and for burial charges. How can they win?

All the garden bits in the brown bins are recycled and SOLD - it is a nice little earner. Who actually benefits financially I know not, however it is an efficient way of dealing with garden waste.

Be doubly nice tor the council,if they can sell the waste and charge us for the collection. My point about a boycott is even more valid; they don't receive extra money for brown bins, they have no wast to sell, and they have to pay landfill charges to bury it!! Not too sensible a way of saving money, I would suggest!