Council denies pre-empting waste collection changes

Council could start charging for collecting green waste

A council has denied pre-empting the final decision on waste collection changes after thousands of new bins were found at a site in the town.

Some councillors and residents claimed Middlesbrough Council was going ahead with plans after black and brown bins were spotted lined up at Nature’s World in the Acklam area of Middlesbrough.

Proposals on fortnightly waste collections and a new £40 green waste collection charge are due to be considered at a meeting on 8 March.

However, the local authority said the £1.2m purchase of replacement bins was approved in “a fully transparent decision” in November last year, as part of a comprehensive review of waste collection measures.

It said the replacement bins would still be used even if the proposed changes to waste and recycling did not come into effect, because it needed to consolidate the two different types of bins it currently used for household waste and green waste.

'Increasing resilience'

The authority said different types of vehicles were currently required for the different bins, which led to logistical issues when there were vehicle breakdowns.

Having the same style of bins for both types of collections would increase the "resilience" of the service, the council stated.

“Vehicle costs would reduce and we would be in a position to collect household waste and garden waste bins using the same vehicles," a spokesperson said.

The council has said moving to fortnightly collections would bring the local authority into line with most other nearby councils - and would support efforts to improve recycling rates, by encouraging other methods of disposal.

Based on the experiences of other authorities, it did not expect this would result in a significant increase in fly-tipping, the council said.

More than 1,100 responses to a month-long public consultation on the proposals were received - the highest response rate in the past five years, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Four consultation events were attended by more than 90 people.

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