Conwy taxpayers won’t receive refund despite three months without garden waste collections

A council has said it won’t be refunding council tax  payers who paid for garden waste to be removed despite not collecting it for three months.

Cllr Greg Robbins, Conwy council’s lead member for environment said “a change in service doesn’t result in a refund”.

Disgruntled gardeners in the county haven’t had their green waste removed since January – and the service will not resume until the end of this month, when it will cost £30 a year to have your cuttings removed.

Some green-fingered tax payers, angered by a near 5% rise in council tax this year, felt they should have had a partial council tax refund because of the gap in services.

Others said it could cause people to “fly-tip rather than wait”, although residents can take garden waste to local recycling centres and dispose of it free of charge.

In a letter to one constituent Cllr Robbins stood firm on the issue.

He said: “Unfortunately the reason for moving to a chargeable garden waste service is that we are having to find ways to continue to deliver our statutory services at reduced levels of funding from central government.

“The garden waste subscription service will contribute around £500,000 of savings, meaning less of the shortfall will need to be raised from Council Tax increases.

“More than half of Councils in England and Wales charge for collection of garden waste, including Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Flintshire.

“There is no evidence from other Councils that fly tipping increases as a result of charging and we did not have problems before we started the service in 2007.

“The vast majority of Conwy residents are law abiding and would never fly tip garden waste or any other type of waste.”

He added: “As Council tax contributes to all the services the Council provides and is not specific to particular services there can be no refund.”

By Jez Hemming – Local Democracy Reporter