£50 fee could be imposed for brown bin collection by West Lothian Council

Councillors have been asked to consider the proposed flat rate £50 annual charge for households as part of this year’s budget.

And union reps backed the roll-out of a programme they said would protect services and jobs in the face of ever growing budget cuts.

There was a furious response on social media when council officers recommended introducing a flat rate charge for households to uplift garden waste. Councillors on the environment and sustainability policy development and scrutiny panel, (PDSP) have since called for mitigations and exemptions to the charge.

If agreed the move would generate £1.15m, assuming up to 40 per cent of households took up the scheme – although that figure was described as ‘unrealistic’ by one community representative.

Councillors from around the Livingston chamber lined up to point out that a single annual charge, paid in one go, would hurt the poorest households the most.

Those with large gardens and several brown bins would not notice the loss of £50 to maintain a large garden, while a struggling household could ill afford the one-off payment.

Several councillors, led by Labour’s Craig Meek, criticised the flat rate. He also called for any annual payment to be transferable so that someone in temporary housing would not have to pay a second time if they moved into a new home.

For the GMB union, West Lothian Convener Tom Carr-Pollock suggested the household levy could be rolled into the rent for council homes and he urged concessions should be considered to recognise the costs of living crisis which working people are still struggling with.

David Maule, the interim recycling, waste and fleet manager, told the meeting that the £1.15m was equivalent to 36 waste operations jobs. The council currently has 113 waste operations staff.

Mr Carr-Pollock told the meeting: “From a trade union point of view we are in support of this proposal. As a waste service worker I have been involved in cuts across the service in the last 21 years.

“Any income that can be generated from non statutory circumstances which serves to protect jobs needs to be looked at. I think concessions have to be looked at, but there is support for this proposal.”

There remains widespread and cross party unhappiness that the council has been forced to consider the uplift charge – West Lothian had resisted embracing the charges last year.

Pippa Plevin, representing the Joint Forum of Community Councils told the meeting: “I think the amount we’ll raise is unrealistic and very optimistic due to the potential uptake and number of brown bins being used at the moment.”

Panel chairman Councillor Tom Conn said officers had brought back the proposals to balance the budget.

He acknowledged that people were upset at the proposal but added: “We can only go back to the paper that lists countless councils which have already introduced this. In some respects West Lothian is last at the feast.”

A final decision will be made at the end of the month as part of the wider budget.