Council looks at options for new bins

Councillors are set to consider options for charges to be introduced for the delivery of new bins to homes in the Harborough district in a bid to make more effective use of public money.

One penny in every pound spent by Harborough District Council in 2018/2019 was spent on buying and delivering new or replacement bins – spending £158,843.15 on the process during 2018/2019 – equal to 1.3% of the Council’s total annual budget. The cost of delivering bins to newbuild houses, during the same period, reached £49,583.70 – almost a third of that spend.

Other options being considered are decreasing the size of the black bins for properties with five or more residents on future bin deliveries to encourage more recycling and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Councillors will also consider no longer providing a second recycling bin free of charge; however one can be provided for a fee and extra recycling can still be presented next to bins on recycling collection days.

Cllr Jonathan Bateman, portfolio holder for Environmental Services at Harborough District Council said: “The cost of new bins and new bin delivery services from service providers is increasing year-on-year. It is important for the Council to reassess how it will meet these costs, now and in the future.”

Harborough District Council continues to look at ways of achieving sustainable reductions in public spending. The proposal to charge for the delivery of bins is in line with a number of neighbouring councils, some of whom have been charging for wheeled bins since April 2015.

Any bin policy change, if agreed, is scheduled to come into effect on 1 April 2020. Full details of the changes to the bin policy, and the Council’s associated scale of fees and charges, will be made available on the Council website.