Opening hours at Spalding tip are set to reduce further after South Holland District Council approved a pilot scheme for a garden waste collection service.
Lincolnshire County Council, which runs the Household Waste Recycling Centre in West Marsh Road, has indicated that it will also stop Saturday morning skip collections around the district.
District council cabinet members last week approved a two-year trial of the scheme, which will start on April 4 next year.
Cost of the opt-in scheme will be £49 per year, plus a one-off fee for delivery of the bin and administration. This will be £15 for households subscribing between February 1 and March 31. After that point, it will rise to £20.
A subscription enables up to 24 fortnightly collections.
Council officers are confident that there will be a good take-up and the scheme will be an income-generating success.
At last week’s cabinet meeting, finance portfolio holder Coun Peter Coupland (Fleet) challenged the business case. He queried whether the council could be jeopardising up to £30,000 in set-up costs before the scheme was off the ground.
Project manager and environmental services manager Emily Spicer said: “We could set the introductory fee [for the bins] higher but we feel it’s important to get the subscribers in quickly.”
Coun Coupland suggested that her response sounded like she was not confident of getting the 2,300 subscribers needed for the scheme to break even in year one, but Mrs Spicer denied that.
“We are absolutely confident that we are going to get more than 2,300,” she said.
Members saw details of many similar schemes, including North Kesteven (59 per cent subscribed), Boston (49 per cent) and South Kesteven (44 per cent). They were told the garden waste would be taken to the organic recycling centre at Crowland.
South Holland leader Gary Porter (Spalding St Mary’s) scotched any suggestion that this first use of wheelie bins in the district would be extended into the main waste collections.
He told the meeting: “Most of us are in the normal position that we are so against wheelie bins it’s untrue.
“Thirty-five of the 37 members all got elected on a ticket that we’ll try and maintain a weekly waste collection. That’s almost financially impossible with wheelie bins.”
The scheme also allows householders to buy ten paper sacks for £15 without subscription. This might suit people with more infrequent need or homes not suitable for having wheelie bins.
Coun Bryan Alcock (Crowland and Deeping St Nicholas) was concerned that the 240-litre brown bins on frontages would block paths in streets already busy with parked cars.
Waste management portfolio holder Coun Roger Gambba-Jones (Spalding Wygate) said officers would keep a tight rein on the situation with a warning system – and ultimately a withdrawal of the service – for householders who did not comply with the terms and conditions of the scheme.
The pilot will serve 5,000 households with 500 collections per day. Week one of the almost year-round fortnightly rota will serve Spalding, week two will go to Holbeach, Crowland, Long Sutton, Sutton Bridge, Donington, Gosberton and Surfleet.
