Council to charge for garden waste bin collections

Another council in England has voted to introduce an annual fee for garden waste collections.

Households in Chelmsford will next year have to pay £60 if they want their brown bins picked up.

All local authorities in the county - that are legally entitled to charge for garden waste collections - have now chosen to impose the fees.

Liberal Democrat council leader Stephen Robinson said: "This is a really difficult decision for us but it's a lot easier than cutting services."

The council's annual financial review earlier this year reported it had a deficit of £4m for 2025-26.

Households receiving council tax support will pay a reduced annual charge of £45 and adding a second brown bin will cost a further £30.

Earlier this week, cabinet member for finance Chris Davidson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the change was being brought in "very reluctantly".

Roy Whitehead, the Conservative shadow cabinet member for finance, said he was not against the charge "in total", but would have liked to have seen a more tailored approach.

"What I suggested was to charge per band, so people on the smallest bands with the smallest houses would pay less than those with larger houses," Mr Whitehead said.

"I think our fear was that people would in fact dump their waste into their black bins, so our recycling rate would actually deteriorate again.

"For the council that has green credentials we're sort of cutting our nose off, aren't we?"

At the full council meeting on Wednesday, the majority of members approved introducing the collection fee.

They also agreed to increase the cost of short-stay charges at its car parks by about 10%, and full-day charges by 50p.

The council said charges at Chelmsford Crematorium would also increase in line with fees elsewhere in Essex and east London.

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