High charges spark drop in garden waste subscriptions

Fewer Blackpool residents are paying the council to collect their garden waste with the town’s high annual fee for the service being blamed.

Blackpool Council charges £45, which is in addition to the annual council tax bill, for green waste to be collected year round apart from a break of around two months in the winter.

However it is one of the highest charges in Lancashire for the service, with neighbouring Fylde charging its residents £36 and Wyre £40 to pick up their garden waste.

The annual report by Blackpool Council’s waste services company Enveco shows income from the green waste collection to be £500,000 in the red and warns subscriptions are at their lowest levels since the introduction of charging in 2016/17.

Now it is being proposed to freeze the charge for the next financial year and run a campaign to increase the number of subscriptions.

The report, which will be presented to the Climate Change and Environment Scrutiny Committee on January 30, says: “Subscription charging for green waste is now at £45 per year, which is at the higher end of charging across Lancashire.

“This has led to a significant reduction in the number of residents talking up the service with subscriptions now at the lowest level since the introduction of charging, sitting at around 8,000.

“While the service still generates enough revenue to cover the cost of provision, the amount of residual income has reduced which impacts on the services’ contribution to corporate pressures and savings.

“It is proposed to not apply any increase this coming year and try to increase participation through campaigns and promotions.”

When the scheme was first launched it generated more than 10,000 subscriptions and around £250,000 in revenue which covered the cost of provision.

The report also warns many of the alley gates across Blackpool, which provide security and prevent fly tipping in back alleys, are becoming expensive to maintain with some needing to be replaced.

Installation costs were covered by ward budgets but Enveco says there is no council budget to cover maintenance and replacement costs, but it will explore new ways of funding alley gates.

However while 84km of back alleys are adopted by the council, meaning it has a duty towards maintaining them, more than 2,000 other back alleys and passageways totalling 69km are not adopted.

These are essentially private property but Enveco says it is supporting residents to keep the areas tidy.