Cost of brown bin collection to rise

Brown bin collection in two districts could see residents paying out more for the service

Some gardeners say they are planning boycotts of brown bins due to an increased cost for the service.

Broadland Council and South Norfolk Council are proposing to raise the cost of their garden waste collection service by £3.

The yearly subscription fee would go up to £70, which the local authorities say is due to higher fuel prices and the costs of buying new vehicles.

The proposals are due to be voted on in the coming weeks as part of the councils' budget-setting process for 2025-26.

'Too big'

The two district councils supply households with a brown bin which is collected fortnightly.

Grant Nurden, Conservative councillor at Broadland, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I have a number of residents who have come to me and said they are going to stop paying for the service because of the increases.

"It's just becoming exponentially too big."

The two councils share most of their services but remain politically separate.

Broadland is run by a Liberal Democrat-led coalition, while South Norfolk is run by the Conservatives.

Council officers stressed the new bin charges were calculated to cover the cost of the service and not to make a profit.

They added there had been a continual growth in the number of people subscribing to garden waste collections.

Last week, Ipswich Borough Council became the last local authority in Suffolk to introduce a charge for what had previously been a free brown bin collection service.