Last-ditch bid to reverse controversial North Northants garden waste charge fails

A last-gasp attempt to reverse North Northamptonshire Council’s controversial £40 garden waste collection charge failed last night (Tuesday).

A cross-party group of councillors had used a call-in process to attempt to force the ruling executive committee to take a fresh look at the decision, which they approved in September despite thousands of furious residents opposing it in a consultation.

Opposition members said the decision could cause an uptick in fly-tipping, that garden waste could simply end up in black bins and that the charge is unaffordable for people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

At last night’s key cross-party scrutiny commission meeting a vote on whether to take no further action or refer the decision back to the executive committee was tied at 6-6. Meeting chair Cllr Wendy Brackenbury (Con), the wife of executive member Cllr David Brackenbury, used her casting vote to take no further action meaning the executive’s decision to go ahead with the charges will stand.

Cllr Martin Griffiths (Ind) said the meeting should be chaired by an opposition or independent councillor, adding that such meetings should be streamed in the future so taxpayers could see how decisions are taken.

He said: “To determine such an important matter after a tied vote on a chairman’s casting vote was quite frankly crass.”

Green bins have previously been collected at no additional cost in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough, with a £55 annual charge in East Northamptonshire.

But after the four district councils were replaced by North Northamptonshire Council, who want to harmonise services, all those who need garden waste collected will face an annual £40 opt-in subscription starting on April 1 next year.

Residents can sign up for a green compostable sack service for £16.50 with garden waste collected in bags for occasional use for those with smaller gardens, as an alternative to the 12-month subscription service.

Cllr Anne Lee (Lab), who initiated the call-in process, said: “I argued quite strongly that the executive should have listened to the recommendation of the finance and resources scrutiny committee and to the 80 per cent of 9,000 respondents who said they preferred for green waste collections to remain part of the council tax rather than charged as an opt-in service. After all, we don’t have full sight of the figures from private contractors currently competing in East Northants.

“It remains to be seen whether those private contractors will now expand their activities to compete with the council in the whole of north Northants.”

Cllr Emily Fedorowycz (Green) said the decision was an abysmal show of processes and democracy with a ‘real lack of principled decision making’.

She said: “The call-in was the right decision, to make sure we got this right as a council and it’s just been completed dismissed by a single vote...the council might be struggling but there’s other ways to make money without putting this on our residents in the middle of a cost of living crisis.”

And Earls Barton Conservative Cllr Scott Brown said: “I am bitterly disappointed that this decision is set to stand.

“I am aghast that the executive are ignoring 80 per cent of the 9,000 respondents to the consultation, upset that they’re ignoring the recommendations of the finance and resource committee and angry that the decision to take no further action last night was decided upon by the chair of the scrutiny committee who is not independent from the executive as they should be.

“If this is how NNC is going to be ran, I’ll be putting serious consideration in to whether this is an organisation I wish to continue being a part of.”

The council’s Labour group leader, Cllr John McGhee, who previously described the charge as a ‘stealth tax’, described the process as a ‘shambles’.

Cllr Graham Lawman (Con), the council’s executive member for highways, travel and assets, said: “The costs of our services are rising along with everything else and need to be paid for, whether the charge is direct or indirect and we believe that charging an appropriate rate across the whole unitary area is the fairest way of running this service – creating the most cost-effective and sustainable solution. I am sure that this will be well received in the former East Northants Council area as they will no longer be paying more than elsewhere.

“We have also taken the opportunity to enhance the home compost bin scheme and we will be offering to all residents the on request sack collections for those who do not want or need a bin.

“Further details of how it will run will be published soon, giving people sufficient time to sign up.”