South Gloucestershire Council’s controversial green bin tax is being blamed for a surge in fly tipping across the district.
Since March 31st, households have been charged £36 a year to have their green bin waste collected – a service previously included as part of council tax bills.
Angry residents and community leaders have branded the measure – voted through by Labour and LibDem councillors after a sham consultation – as a ‘bin tax’ and have protested outside various council recycling centres over recent weeks.
Many residents dispute the claim that the tax will save the authority money because of the increased costs of administration, as well as people simply putting their green waste in their black bin or fly-tipping.
Now a wave of fly tipping offences are being reported up and down the district – the latest being in the village of Hill, near Thornbury.
In a previous report to councillors, council officials had admitted that it was ‘inevitable’ that the bin tax would increase fly-tipping, as has happened in other council areas where a bin tax has already been implemented.
Also 15 per cent of respondents to the council’s heavily-criticised consultation said that a bin tax would lead to them or others fly tipping their garden waste.
Thomas Jenner-Fust, Chairman of Hill Parish Council said:
“The disposal of green bin waste is unlikely to be green, but there are other issues. In the rural areas many people generate a lot of green waste and the green bins are vital for disposal of this - surely the council could use this green waste in anaerobic digesters or for compost and make use of it.
Now that the bin tax is here we will see more bonfires as well as dumping of green waste. In a low lying parish I am concerned that ditches could become blocked with green waste and that people’s garden plant and weeds will be dumped in areas where they are not native and may disrupt the local ecosystems.”
District councillor Matthew Riddle (Con, Severn) said:
"There is huge concern locally about this sudden increase in fly tipping and the associated costs of clearing it away and tracking down the perpetrators. It cannot be a coincidence that this has happened so soon after the bin tax was brought in.