Garden waste charges 'unfair' to Bournemouth after council merger

Almost 50,000 people in the BCP conurbation pay for garden waste collection

Changes to garden waste charges following the merger of three Dorset councils have been branded "unfair".

Green waste charges were unified at £46 per household following the combining of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole into the BCP authority.

The move was made despite bins in Bournemouth being about half the size of those in the other two towns.

Bournemouth councillors criticised the plan but BCP said it would cost almost £300,000 to replace bins in the resort.

BCP Council was formed when Dorset's nine authorities were merged into two in April in a bid to save money, and subsequently efforts have been made to bring services into line.

Almost 50,000 people in the BCP council area pay for garden waste collections, more than 19,000 of whom live in Bournemouth.

Bournemouth councillor Stephen Bartlett said the flat charge meant people living in Bournemouth who have 140-litre bins were paying "twice as much" as residents in the other two towns who have 240-litre bins, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"We are supposed to harmonise our services within the next two years and this is just not fair and will affect take-up of the service," he said.

David Brown, BCP's portfolio holder for finance, said it would cost £289,000 to replace the bins in Bournemouth and that changes in legislation could mean they require further changes in the coming years.

"It's not ideal to still have differences but this is the charge for the collection of the bin, not for what's inside it," he said.