Flintshire Council approves three-weekly bin collections

Plans to introduce three-weekly black bin collections in Flintshire have been approved after a suggested monthly service was deemed too controversial.

Members of Flintshire Council’s ruling Labour cabinet met this morning (Tuesday, 23 July) to discuss proposals to collect general waste from residents once every four weeks instead of fortnightly.

It followed a warning that the local authority could be fined more than £1.2m for failing to meet the Welsh Government recycling target of 64 per cent for the last four financial years, unless its performance improved.

Senior councillors were told moving to a monthly service would have boosted the county’s recycling rate from just under 63 per cent to almost 69.

It would have left the authority short of the new goal of 70 per cent set by ministers for this year, but resulted in financial savings of around £770,000 per year.

However, council leader Ian Roberts tabled an amendment to switch to three-weekly collections following a public backlash against the plans.

More than 2,700 people signed a petition calling on the council to scrap the monthly collection proposals amid concerns it would have seen large piles of rubbish dumped in the streets

Members of a backbench scrutiny committee also opposed the changes last week, describing them as “unfair”.

Speaking during a meeting at County Hall in Mold, Cllr Roberts said: “I’m proposing amendments to the recommendation that we move to a three-weekly collection model.

“I do recognise the very strong financial arguments for four-weekly collections.

“However, I am aware from the environment scrutiny meeting that there are a series of issues which we need to deal with.

“We need to deal with recycling in some of our blocks of flats, and we need to deal with recycling in some of our HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) as well, where I think very little recycling actually takes place.”

The move to monthly collections was proposed after consultants looked at three options to improve the council’s recycling performance.

It found that four-weekly collections would provide the most benefits, whilst retaining a weekly recycling service and keeping bins at their current size of 180 litres.

A report to cabinet members showed the three-weekly service would only lift recycling rates to 66 per cent.

Meanwhile, the financial savings would reduce to approximately £650,000 under the revised scheme put forward by Cllr Roberts and increase the likelihood of fines being imposed.

Cllr Chris Bithell, cabinet member for planning, public health and protection, said it was a difficult decision, but residents’ views needed to be considered.

He said: “I recognise that getting this across the line and accepted by local people is an issue.

“I think the best that we can do at this particular moment in time will be the three-weekly collection service.

“There will be some people who want to retain the two-weekly collection, which is quite frankly not acceptable, because we simply won’t hit the targets.”

Cllr Sean Bibby, cabinet member for housing, described the amended proposals as a “pragmatic compromise”.

He said: “This is something that I have deeply opposed personally, but I think we now have to accept the reality of the spectre of infraction fines.

“With the current financial position we find ourselves in, the maintenance of the fortnightly collection is simply not sustainable.”

The council’s chief officer for streetscene and transportation warned the altered proposals would have financial implications for the authority.

Katie Wilby said: “If the Welsh Government does choose to levy a fine again for us not achieving the targets again next year, that’s an additional £600,000.

“That’s on top of the £1.2m that we’ve already reported, so there’s a significant financial risk to the local authority in terms of this decision.”

Corporate finance manager Gary Ferguson said it would also add to the authority’s predicted budget gap of £37.7m for the next financial year.

However, cabinet members unanimously voted in favour of the move to three-weekly collections at the end of the debate.

Officers said a further report would be brought to them in the autumn, before changes to the service are fully introduced.

By Liam Randall  – Local Democracy Reporter