Rye householders will pay more for their garden waste recycling, after Rother District Council's (RDC) Cabinet decided to increase the charge by £5 a year over the next three years.
As the current "brown bin" annual charge of £35 is fixed until 14 July 2020, it looks likely that a fee of £40 will apply after that date, rising to £50 by mid-2022.
Garden waste removal, previously free to residents, generates a hefty £745,000 each year for the Council, although this still leaves RDC needing to find £35,000 for the service. The Council originally wished to raise the bin charge to £50 in 2020, which would have brought in £939,000 — a surplus of £195,300.
One councillor has suggested that discussion took place about raising the charge to £60 in 2021. However, at its Cabinet meeting in November, RDC rejected the steeper fee proposals in favour of the £5 per year increase. This decision seems to have been based on the concern that residents would react unfavourably to a 43% increase in the fee.
On a worrying note for local residents, the RDC’s Cabinet pointed out that “there were no legal restrictions preventing the Council making a surplus from this activity”. In other words, it’s possible that the garden waste bin charge will climb beyond the £50 figure, as is currently the case in Hastings (£66), Eastbourne (£52) and Lewes (£70).
Many UK councils are facing acute funding problems and will employ discretionary revenue-raising powers to protect vital services.
RDC will reportedly save £40,000 per year by not paying East Sussex County Council for four additional grass cuts to Rother’s road verges in 2020-21 — presumably meaning that verge cutting will only take place twice a year in most of the district’s towns and parishes. However, Rye is understood to be one of several town and parish councils that finance their own grass cutting.
