The proposed 33% price hike for garden lovers signed up to the Isle of Wight Council’s green waste subscription has been approved.
Ahead of renewals to subscriptions in September the price will rise from £6 to £8 a month, an extra £24 a year. It increases the price of the fortnightly garden waste collections by a third, from £72 to £96.
The original price of the scheme was £60 meaning prices have gone up by 60% since it was introduced in 2017. However, subscribers will not face another price increase in the next 2 years.
Councillor Jonathan Bacon, cabinet member for environment and waste, told fellow cabinet members the service would still be competitive with others on the Island and the increase would give the authority the ability to extend the service.
There are currently more than 10,400 people signed up for the scheme but 1,200 people are on the waiting list.
A second collection vehicle was introduced to the scheme but the price increase would increase commercial viability for a third, the council said.
Cllr Bacon told the cabinet it may not be a popular proposal, to push up the prices, but it has been carefully considered.
The £2 increase, while approved, was met with some concern from Hunnyhill and Parkhurst councillor Andrew Garratt, who asked cabinet to consider the impact decisions may have on people in poverty in future discussions as gardening was a free activity for many, including those on low incomes.
He said the council should not be excluding people from services like this due to their income and while a couple of pounds may seem a small amount, for those in poverty it could have a significant impact on their household budget.
Cllr Bacon assured Cllr Garratt it had been very much part of the consideration.
The decision was made this month to allow subscription renewal, at the higher price, from the New Year.
Genius IWC. That should get the fly tipping stats right up. Nice one. Big thumbs up. Idiots.
They cannhave mine back
Ill keep my money
So much for being green and helping the planet
Ill just burn it to not help the plant
Way to go council top marks to you lot
Steve this is another way off clawing extra money from ratepayers ,we need another company to undercut this Council ,then the Council will not have the monopoly ,unless the council will not grant a licence ?
If this isn’t crazy inflation, I don’t know what is at 33%
Another stupid move from bacon…Councillor Jonathan Bacon, cabinet member for environment and waste, told fellow cabinet members the service would still be competitive with others on the Island.
.
Fly tipping is far more attractive at these prices for green waste- as it biodegrades easily and came from the earth to begin with.
expect to see grass cuttings put in the bottom of the black bag of unrecyclable waste and then other rubbish put on top – won’t be noticed until the bag is broken open in the bin lorry – council aren’t really thinking this through are they.
cut the adult social sponge budget and then expand the environmental services
Agree it is a OTT increase, but disagree that MOST will fly tip.
Mainly the sort who do fly tip are not the type that tend their garden but slobs anyway.
The council KNOW that most people are afraid of breaking the law, therefore the FEW extra who do fly tip will be nothing compared to the extra revenue collected from the sheep mass of honest, moaning, threatening yet STILL paying for the service.
Sad, but true.
However agree with the last sentence, now mental heatlh fraud is the massive new game for benefit fraud, as hard to prove I know, I work with those scamming the system via this route and it will be a huge issue soon.
cannot disagree their carol!
There
Carol, you are right about the mental health fraud growing numbers. Issue is, not only does the person claiming such con the system, but, they then often claim they need a care worker, who coincidently is a member of the family or close friend.
Then these to claim for looking after the fake victim, thus costing the country a fortune, and, because it is such a sensitve issue, few dare question the fraud.
Of course there are many genuine people in need of such, but an easy con for the growing dishonest in society now the NHS is throwing money at mental health issues.
many years ago, we used to see a small handful of disabled parking spaces near the front of the supermarket car parks and you often saw them empty or just one car in them. Sainsburys now has loads of disabled spaces and when I was there a couple of days ago, every single disabled space was taken and I did not see one car without a blue badge in it – glanced as I walked past.
there is no way on the face of this earth that this country has suddenly become so disabled. More like countless con artists and spongers pretending to have disabilities to claim benefits.
sadly, this means the pot of cash set aside to assist those in genuine needs it being drained by the unconscionable, deadbeat burdens on society, that claim to be disabled and that the money is “their yooman rites”
about time the council said – if you genuinely cannot “WALK” then you get a blue badge parking permit – the rest of you – park like everyone else.
Well hasn’t everyone’s wages gone up 33% this year??? No probably just council workers wages that have gone up
Actually no council employees wages didn’t go up this year and depending on which band, from April they won’t be much higher then minimum wage.
Good none of them deserve minimum wage
Oh to have the prudent Conservatives back in power.
No thanks. Not prudent and many other things besides.
Greed always gets you in the end. It opens the door for cheaper private services, so it will be the council who lose out in the end.
Just like Royal Mail and its parcel services.
Well they obviously want to stop this service then, otherwise why would they hike up this much? They need to be realistic because older people who can’t get to the tip use this too.
Or… are they trying to push everyone away to the other company that collects it…..
I expect it is in the councils interests to do just that.
To push the service away from them, thus can sack a few more workers to show how they have saved money to HMG, but of course NOT ever sack the top bloated layer, only the real workers.
Then, likely they will get a large thank you as it is handed to a private company.
People assume these are stupid people, yet not so, they KNOW exactly what they are doing and it will always be for their gain, not ours.
I feel sorry for the guys collecting the green rubbish i will be climbing inside mine to squash it down to get as much in as i can
Why not invest in a shredder and compost the green rubbish, better for the environement .
But…if you’ve got green waste it means, presumably, you have a garden? So, why not compost the waste in your garden and use it? Or am I missing something? (I’m not being funny here, I must be missing something obvious as I can’t see why people aren’t composting their own green waste)
It is the cost of shredders that is off-putting. One would cost waymore than the green bin.
I’ll be sorting my own compost bin – Simples
Well I am not paying that amount, I shall go elsewhere, and cancel my direct debit next year.
Done it.
good for you
Just put garden waste in a black bin liner and put it in with normal rubbish
I.O,W Council is putting up prices by more the rate of inflation and getting two bites of the cherry ,by selling it on to the public as COMPOST , the price increase will increase flytipping, and encourage other companies to start up a buisness ,then the Council will refuse a licence,if a company will start up a buisness of simular nature this, will then force the Council to think again about a price increase .The Council then will not have the monopoly ,may i just add to Andrew Garratt the I.O.W Council are now repairing roads and putting up street lights ? on the prison site ,IS IT SO THE COUNCIL CAN USE THE GREEN FIELD SITE for new Houses