Can council (legally) charge for bins

nickine

I've just moved into a new property in the Shepway district and discovered that there was no wheelie bin (apparently had been pinched by a neighbour some time ago).
I contacted the council told be told there was a £35 charge to replace a bin and that no rubbish would be collected unless we had one. Duly paid the £35 without question and a temporary bin arrived last week which we are to use until our permanent one arrives.
Anyway - to the crux of my issue!
My sister moved to a house in the district last year and when I told her about this she said "you don't have to pay". She approached the bin men who were collecting outside her house not long after she moved in and asked if they would be able to take the black bags of rubbish until her new bin arrived. She told them that she had paid the council £35. The bin men said that they are "just making money" and "don't have to pay £35 as they would replace FOC". She called Shepway and relayed this message to which they said "OK" and refunded her.
Now, it was only a brief exchange and my sister can't recall all the details plus I'm not in receipt of benefits and she is. My dealings in the past with Shepway have been fraught (council tax issues/parking ticket issues) to say the least so I'd like to be a bit more prepared before I call instead of just blurting "My sister says you don't have to pay for a bin".
My eReciept says nothing except Wheelie Bin and the amount paid.
Does anyone know how this works?

montyrebel

why would they give you something for free? would you go in to a shop and see a dress you like and just say go can I have that free of charge. I think that £35 is a fair charge

mrcol1000

The council can and will charge for a wheelie bin. The council only has an obligation to take your rubbish away not to provide you with something to store it in. If they only collect rubbish if its in a wheelie bin then you have to have a wheelie bin. However they should take black bags until you get your new bin delivered. I am confused as it sounds like the £35 charge was for a temp bin?? The council should only really charge you if you need a new bin because you mis-use it and it has to be removed or you claim it as stolen but do not get a crime number. If your a new occupier and there is no bin they should really have supplied one for free. I wouldn't take much notice of what the bin men say though as no offence but policy changes and they often don't get told. This is why you get a lot of times where your told one thing but then something else happens.
I would find out about their complaints process and make a complaint concerning this. They made need to give staff clarification on policy

Mark_Hewitt

I think it is up to the council concerned, although I'd expect them to give you your first bin for free.

Certainly Durham council give free bins. We had our original one stolen, then replaced, then that got stolen, so we replaced that again, then the second one turned up down the road and the binmen swapped it back! No idea where the third one is now!

RobertoMoir

montyrebel wrote: »

why would they give you something for free? would you go in to a shop and see a dress you like and just say go can I have that free of charge. I think that £35 is a fair charge

If this were an additional bin then I'd agree with you 100% but I don't think that's the case. If they don't have a bin at all then I might suggest that they've already paid for one bin as part of their council tax on the property.

superscaper

RobertoMoir wrote: »

If this were an additional bin then I'd agree with you 100% but I don't think that's the case. If they don't have a bin at all then I might suggest that they've already paid for one bin as part of their council tax on the property.

Was going to say the same thing. The shop analogy is false because you are in fact already paying for council services and I'd have thought that includes a standard bin to service your property.

mrcol1000

superscaper wrote: »

Was going to say the same thing. The shop analogy is false because you are in fact already paying for council services and I'd have thought that includes a standard bin to service your property.

But the council only has to supply the collection of rubbish as part of your council tax. Not storage of rubbish. Therefore by rights they could make everyone supply their own wheelie bin but you can well imagine how that one would end.

superscaper

mrcol1000 wrote: »

But the council only has to supply the collection of rubbish as part of your council tax. Not storage of rubbish. Therefore by rights they could make everyone supply their own wheelie bin but you can well imagine how that one would end.

That doesn't really ring true to me unless there's no obligations on how you store your rubbish but if rubbish collection is only done on council supplied (compulsory) wheelie bins then surely that's part of the service. Certainly the initial supply of wheelie bins is done by the council funded by the council tax. I'm not really talking about the storage per se but merely how it's collected and the wheelie bins are part of the "collection procedure", at least as far as every council area I've lived within.

If the pavement in front of your house got vandalised you're not obligated to pay for it to be repaired. The council repair it. Even though it may be you who personally benefits from it the most.

RobertoMoir

mrcol1000 wrote: »

But the council only has to supply the collection of rubbish as part of your council tax. Not storage of rubbish. Therefore by rights they could make everyone supply their own wheelie bin but you can well imagine how that one would end.

And they said to the OP that they wouldn't accept rubbish in sacks, which should be perfectly acceptable to them if they are not involved in the storage of this rubbish. If they're going to mandate a particular tool to use with the service you're already paying for (and are obliged to pay for) then it's reasonable for them to supply that tool.

Meadows

mrcol1000 wrote: »

But the council only has to supply the collection of rubbish as part of your council tax. Not storage of rubbish. Therefore by rights they could make everyone supply their own wheelie bin but you can well imagine how that one would end.

You are right there, my council do not provide a bin or bin bags, all they do is collect the rubbish weekly.

The only thing we have been provided with is a green plastic box for fortnightly and re-cycling and a green bag for fortnightly garden waste (once that has worn out you have to buy your own).

superscaper

I think it depends on the council area you live in.

Having a look on my council's website it's quite clear that the wheelie bins in my area are compulsory and the council consider them an integral part of the refuse collection service and so the only circumstance under which you pay is if it has to be replaced because of your own misuse, even under genuine requirement for an additional bin isn't charged.