Council Waste Money

FOREVER21

My council North Tyneside have for a number of years had a separate collection for garden waste. They decided in 2012 to introduce a £20 annual charge for this service.
However a vast number of people said they would not pay and that they would not use the service. After reconsidering the position the council have now decided not to impose a fee for the service.

It is estimated that the council spent approx. £21k in sending out leaflets, collecting some money, and other admin costs. In addition it is estimated that it could cost around £47k to refund the money to those who had wanted to join the scheme. (although the council are looking at ways to reduce this.)

So around £60k money wasted by the council nice one Mrs Arkley. (Mayor of the council):(

maninthestreet

The law should be changed to prevent councils trying bill residents for services that they pay their council tax for.

iSaving

An expensive lesson indeed, but perhaps the council can instead be applauded for listening to their constituents (eventually)?

Would you have rather they'd forged ahead with the scheme regardless?

FOREVER21

iSaving wrote: »

An expensive lesson indeed, but perhaps the council can instead be applauded for listening to their constituents (eventually)?

Would you have rather they'd forged ahead with the scheme regardless?

I would have preferred them to consult before they tried to introduce the scheme as they have done with other proposals

WestonDave

Councils would do well to learn a few basic economic principles such as elasticity of demand - in other words if you shove the price up, you won't get the same number of people paying the higher price.

I have to say you've got off extremely lightly. Our clowns have been running the usual town hall script of encouraging public transport use and discouraging people from driving into the city centre by racking up parking charges. (About all they can do since they can't stop First racking up bus fares even faster!). However they assumed that people didn't have any other choice (such as the growing out of town retail park 15 minutes drive away with free parking). We now have a £1.4m shortfall in the transport budget almost entirely down to parking charges failing to bring in enough revenue.

I'd happily swap your waste for ours!

Takeaway_Addict

FOREVER21 wrote: »

I would have preferred them to consult before they tried to introduce the scheme as they have done with other proposals

|Surely consultation would have run into the thousands anyway?

Slowhand

Oh don't get me started. Our Council refurbished our library 2 years ago. Building was stripped back to a shell and rebuilt internally. All new books too. It closed last week as it's getting bulldozed before getting rebuilt as part of a new complex....but not before the council built a temporary library in the nearby Morrisons car park!

cockaleekee

I think the council did the wrong thing by scrapping the scheme. The same happened here when the scheme was introduced, people said they would not use it. Then they realised how much easier it was to pay the £20 and have the waste collected rather than having to go to the tip each time, and they paid up!

bosseyed

Ugh, Councils. My local Council (Filton, Bristol) seem entirely unable to come up with any sensible solutions to the expensive and never used speedway track they built, the expensive and barely used boules court and the mysterious shipping container with the mystery contents that costs the local tax payers money to rent.

And alongside all this is the crumbling childrens play area - the £50k spent building the speedway track could have done wonders for this and really smartened it up or put in some newer facilities, ie made something worthwhile and sensible for the local children rather than ending up as a large gravel track that just grows more weeds every year.

http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/grassroots/2011/12/filton-councils-costly-container.html

FOREVER21

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

|Surely consultation would have run into the thousands anyway?

There would have been a cost yes, but not as much as they eventually wasted., every little helps!

FOREVER21

cockaleekee wrote: »

I think the council did the wrong thing by scrapping the scheme. The same happened here when the scheme was introduced, people said they would not use it. Then they realised how much easier it was to pay the £20 and have the waste collected rather than having to go to the tip each time, and they paid up!

Apparently people up here had said that if the charge was levied then they would put the garden waste in with the normal household rubbish, this then concerned the council as they thought the landfill usage would increase and they in turn would face fines from central government.

Personnally I agree the council should not have changed their minds I think the garden waste collection is a good scheme and I had paid my money.

I was surprised by the councils response and I wonder what they would do if some people said they would not pay for example the fire service charge on the council tax as they had never used the service. Are we going to be allowed to pick and mix for the services we wish to pay for?