West Lothian Council: Brown bin charge might not be imposed for long

West Lothian Council is expected to introduce the charge as part of this year’s budget plans.

However, the council leader said – while they were following other councils across Scotland in charging residents for the service – he believed it was the intention of the Scottish Government to make it a statutory service.

This would mean the council has to provide it, although it was suggested funding would come from the Government for this – but only if they move now to bring in a charge.

The council is already being forced to reduce spending and change a wide range of non-statutory services because of insufficient funding being provided by the Scottish Government, combined with increasing costs.

Councils are legally obliged to provide non-statutory services. Currently, garden waste collection is not a statutory service and some councils do not provide any garden collection.

Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: “I don’t think anyone wants to pay for a garden waste collection but the options available are now very limited and that is why the majority of councils in Scotland already have similar charging schemes.

“We are looking to put in place garden waste charges as it’s a non-statutory service.

“We understand, however, that the Scottish Government is intending making it a statutory service. The government providing funding for that service would make it possible for us to remove the garden waste charge in future.

“It is possible that if we do not introduce a charge now, the Scottish Government would not provide us with additional income should they make the service statutory in future.”

Councillor Fitzpatrick went on: “Operational services – which provides vital services such as roads, paths, parks, recycling centres, waste and recycling – cannot sustain further cuts. We don’t believe that is what local residents want, either. Without increasing income via charging, the only option available is to look at reducing services further and we don’t want that. We want to protect services and protect jobs.”

The charge has been backed by the unions. After years of services and staff numbers being whittled away, the GMB said the charge – which would generate £1 million – would protect jobs and services.

The unions have suggested the permit charge be added to rents for council homes and argued that mitigations are put in place to recognise the squeeze on incomes.

There has been widespread criticism of the proposal from householders, with an online petition launched.

It is proposed that permits for West Lothian residents would cost £50 per household per annum, with options to be considered for households with more than two brown bins.

The majority of Scottish councils which collect garden waste charge for the service. Falkirk Council introduced charges last year.

The proposal would generate additional net income of £1.15 million. This income would go towards the cost of providing the garden waste collection service.