Rasen Town Council: No to green waste charges

Town Council offices at the Old Police station.

The resolution was reached at last week’s monthly town council meeting (October 4), with some councillors questioning why the green waste could not be sold for a profit.

Coun Jennifer Bone said that at her former place of residence in Bedfordshire, the local authority responsible for waste collection sold the waste to a garden centre for compost.

“I’m quite shocked they (WLDC) don’t do that in our area, particularly as we are a more rural locality with more garden space,” she said.

However West Lindsey District councillor Thomas Smith said that the system of government in practice in Lincolnshire made such a scheme problematic.

Coun Smith said: “It’s slightly different here because we are not unitary.

“WLDC are responsible for picking the waste up, but the disposal authority is Lincolnshire County Council – they are responsible for how it is disposed of.”

Coun Smith added that he thought the selling of the waste would have to make £1m – which he reported to be the yearly cost of green waste collection.

Nevertheless, councillors still wished to query why money could not be made from the collected waste, which, they argued, could mean the service remain without charge.

Coun Bone suggested that making ‘that kind of money’ from the sale of green waste was not inconceivable, due to the many green spaces and gardens in the area and the fact that she herself used two green bins at her home in the parish.

Coun Stephen Bunney concluded: “We as a council want our response to this to be questioning why the green waste cannot be sold for a profit in order to keep the subsidised collection.”

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