Opinion: What you are saying about the brown bin charges being imposed in Peterborough

Brown bin collection charges have increased in Peterborough.

- I am writing to express my disgust at the proposed increase in brown bin collection charges to £50 this year when these used to be free not so long ago.

Why is this being charged at all? It’s a rubbish collection it’s what Council Tax should cover.

The price increase would lead to less people paying it.

More people going to the local recycling centre - is that what the council wants?

More people potentially seeking to dump bags of grass/garden waste elsewhere away from their homes, or chuck them in other people’s brown bins.

It seems a chaotic mess, to charge for a random coloured bin collection and the charge needs to stop.

The collections only come around 20 times a year anyway, and if you aren’t at home on those collection days, due to holidays or visiting friends/family you end up paying for around 16 pick ups per annum.

16 collections at £3 a pop, from everyone who pays, seems a lot of money.

What do other councils do for their residents?

I bet they don’t all make this charge?

David Marlow

- I fully agree with [previous correspondent] David Jarman on the 67 percent increase for the second brown bin. Rather than classing it as a “mugging” however, I see it as a poorly concealed increase to the Council Tax and yet another way for the council to extract money from gullible taxpayers.

What are the options? asked Mr Jarman. I feel he missed an important option (the one which I have opted for) and that is refusing to pay the extra charge, ask for the bin to be taken away and start composting more of my own waste.

The only possible downside to this is the council, in its ongoing scramble for popularity, may jump on the bandwagon and claim that this was the underlying reason for the increase all along!

Jim Martin

- I think if they can’t drop the charges and do it for free as normal councils do, they should at least offer a skinny bin for half price for people with smaller gardens. I put my brown bin out less than 10 times a year so it will cost me more than £5 per collection.

Arturs Alksnis

- I’m happy to pay the increase, if it helps the council to set a budget that benefits everyone in the community, whilst paying the work force a minimum wage (or better).

If there were no charge, or a subsidised charge, then that would mean everyone having to pay for the service, regardless of whether they have a garden or not.

David Norris

- I don’t understand why anyone pays for a brown bin for garden refuse when there’s a black bin available for everyday general waste, why pay more when you don’t have to, use what’s made available to you.

Andy (By email)

- It’s a disgrace that there is a charge for garden waste as the Peterborough City Council collection turns it into compost and has the cheek to sell it back to us. Also since the charge for collecting the brown bin has been in place the bin men only collect two or three brown bins in my local area as most people either take it to the tip in Fengate or put it in the black bin.

One day our council will wake up and realise while they keep charging for the collections they’re then having rubbish dumped on the roadside, at a far greater cost to collect than letting rubbish be collected by the bin men. For the bulk waste i.e. house reconstruction, why don’t they have one day a week for these to go to Fengate and I think they would see the overall cost of roadside tips reduce.

Rita Young

- I think the £50 charge is reasonable given the council’s dire financial management. It’s the introduction of a charge to empty the second bin that grates. A £10 charge would have been acceptable, £25 is over the top and a rip-off.

The council should tell us what the actual cost is and how much income it generates. The council still owes me a credit for the brown bin collection they failed to make January 2021.

South Kesteven District Council (Conservative run) charge £60 in total for two bins and have a larger geographic area to cover. If they can make it work for £60, why do Peterborough City Council require £75?

Alistair Seymour

- Council Officials should be ashamed of themselves putting the cost of collecting brown bins.

Pensioners will suffer. There will be more fly-tipping as a result.

We paid an extra £20 to get a second bin, now we can’t use it because of the extra costs again, lots of people don’t have cars to “pop” to the tip and other folk don’t want to cart it in their cars for you. It is shocking.

Marilyn Adcock