I was under the impression the council was going to scrap the charge, but I've jsut received a request for payment for next year. Anyone know what is going on?
https://www.theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2019/05/edinburgh-council-halts-garden-waste-charge/
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
Garden Waste Permit
(33 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Agreed in principle to halt charge. Some reports suggesting would come back to committee in June 2019 but 2019-2020 payment is a definite. That will be the brown envelope addressed to Mrs Garto sitting in top of the box that contains my birthday Stetson delivered today
Posted 5 years ago # -
I have no problem paying it--it's two coffees a month, and I don't see why people stuck in flats with no gardens should have to pay for mine to look lovely (relatively speaking).
But will follow up on this, as we were just speaking to someone who tried to get a permit for his new house, and it was turning into a right 'mare.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Meanwhile: Reports of fly-tipping in Edinburgh more than TRIPLE in last six years
Although garden waste isn't mentioned as being a significant part of the problem. However, IIRC it was a few years ago that they started charging for 'special uplifts' - and lo and behold, furniture is mentioned.
It would help if the tips weren't such a trial to use. The vehicle and people flows just don't work well. The one at Sighthill all too often turns in to a horrible logjam. The staff are usually helpful, though, and do seem to have a good sense of humour (the tip off Dalkeith Road had a spoof Fringe venue sign up on the wee gadgie's hut last summer!)
Posted 5 years ago # -
No, it has not been agreed in principle to scrap the charges. I had the T&E Committee webcast on in the background the other day, like radio. There was an opposition motion to bin the charges, but then the reply was: what do you want to cut by £2 million to pay for this? So officials are "looking into it" and options will be produced for next year's budget round.
TL;DR version - you need to cough up your £25 p.a. until further notice.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I've started fly-tipping. I aim to be Edinburgh's leading fly-tipper of vegetation by 2020.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Network rail takes my waste, never once complained.
Only issue I have with this is the recycling center at Sighthill is always mobbed with folk getting rid of their garden waste.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I always reward someone who provides me with a good service. It doesn’t matter what sort of insect they are.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I've been trying to stroke the red admirals. Maybe I should tip them?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I paid my charge and never received my bin sticker ...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Photograph your neighbour's sticker and print your own.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I paid for it for this year. Occasionally they even come and collect it. I think once it was even on the right day! Wouldn't mind paying the £25 if the service was delivered as advertised.
Shout out to the anonymous individual who dumped all their garden waste in our bin AFTER it had just been emptied...
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't object to paying for council services as such and having a large garden now costs me £50 per year. However I don't particularly like the notion that we should be able to pick and choose which part of the council service we pay for. Is this the thin part of a wedge which will lead to more privatised services? Will we end down the line paying for the schools we use or the support we need as we get older?
I do support congestion/road use charging though so it isn't all black and white. I think I approve of charging where it penalises bad behaviour and my underlying thought is that we need to encourage more green gardens. This charge does the opposite by rewarding people for paving over their gardens.
@Ragingbike, have you contacted the council during the year? We were missing a label in the middle of the year and emailed the council who sent one out within a week.
@newtoit, our experience has been very different. I don't recall a single late collection of the garden bins after the initial teething period of the new service.
Posted 5 years ago # -
When the new system started, the brown bins on my street went un-emptied for a good month. I eventually phoned the council and they were fine about it: organised for them to be emptied the next day, and made sure that our street was added to the route properly. No problems since.
I don't particularly mind people making a mistake if, when told about it, they (a) accept the problem, (b) fix it and (c) make sure it doesn't happen again.
It surprised me that none of my neighbours (most of whom are retired and have vastly more time then I do to make phone calls on private business during work hours) seemed to have had the gumption to make a simple phone call. Maybe they got more satisfaction from grumbling about how useless the council are than they do now from getting their brown bins emptied...
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Maybe they got more satisfaction from grumbling about how useless the council are than they do now from getting their brown bins emptied."
I think that is sadly all to common. If any of our bins are more than a day or 2 late I contact the council via the website. They are usually very quick to fix the issue. Because of where we are our bins can easily be missed by new crews.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I don't mind the £25 and my neighbour sticks in his lawn clippings into my bin after threatening to put it in the landfill.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Surely the ideal is for everyone to compost everything on-site? Commit part of every garden to composting or have a hyper-local shared heap.
Otherwise you are inevitably removing fixed nitrogen and minerals from your soil.
I have resolved to expand my operations. I do find making good compost satisfying oh god I have turned onto my own father I have a tin can of bolts and an interest in compost.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@IWRATS - I would compost and I dream of having a wormery and a water-butt. But I have a tiny garden and no room to compost.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There must be a ratio of compost-space to garden space that largely applies to any garden. Of course heap efficiency is greater for bigger heaps so that's where the hyper-local shared heap comes in.
The bulkiest stuff we produce is the hedge trimmings. I am experimenting. The 300 litre black plastic composter we got off the council struggles to cope with the output of my biannual privet brutality.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Before the brown bins the council offered a range of composting bins. I had a big black one but it sort of fell to bits in a high wind. I donated the bits to my neighbour who has an enormous garden, an enormous compost heap, a big bonfire once a year of the smouldering type and two brown bins. We have always had them Collected on time from the get go.
More than half the council's budget is spent on education and children's services, Scottish Govt squeeze is the main reason for the brown bin charge, education largely protected from the squeeze so cuts have to come from elsewhere.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I've started using the brown bin as my compost bin. It's not ideal as it's probably completely anaerobic at the bottom.
It's not gonna get filled this summer (I don't think) although spent barley from brewing really adds a lot of mass. So it should just get emptied next spring as new soil.
Surely the council could just offer DIY compost bins rather than collection bins and therefore save money on collections. This may only work for small gardens though.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Rosie - we have a wormery - it's quite effective for dealing with plant-based kitchen waste, but that's all. They are quite fussy: not liking onions, for example. A wormery is not the solution to garden composting: if we had room for a compost heap we'd have one of those instead.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Always wondered if there was a way to heat the shed with a modified compost heap but ultimately I don't have a very big garden and don't produce that much garden waste and once the compost is err composted I've no real growing space to actually make use of it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@steveo
Garden heaps are cold heaps. Hot heaps are quite large. Two distinct beasts.
And you just sling the compost back in the garden. The garden knows what to do with it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Surely the council could just offer DIY compost bins..."
They have done a few times (sometimes free, sometimes cheap) in the past but usually only as one-off short-notice event when they had acquired a small surplus or needed to be rid of a few. Currently looking at some sort of pallet-based giant heap system for the allotment as several garden composting bins can't keep up with current weed production.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Our bins are usually collected on time, with rare occaisions where it's late evening or very early the next morning. I don't think this is the end of the world, although if it were happening regularly, it would be a sign of poor management and need re-organising.
There was a case last year of work being done on a street which made it impossible for the driver on that route to get through the street--the info hadn't been shared between different departments so the route hadn't been re-worked. sheesh. weeks it took to fix.we have a big black thing which apparently can be used for hot-compost, and two wooden sections of what appears to be previously created compost, but is rock hard.
i periodically shake the black thing, but recently small brown furry things with long tails shot out from the bottom, and i'm irrationally terrified of tipping it over and discovering a little rodent city. stuff has been percolating in there for over a year, so either i've got compost or a substance i can sell to North Korea.Posted 5 years ago # -
Garden heaps are cold heaps. Hot heaps are quite large. Two distinct beasts.
Now you've sent me down an evening of investigating composting methods etc. Looks like composting (like everything else) has been taken to the n'th degree by the internet.
Having said that an insulated compost bin would provide a lot of heat in a small space but odds of that heat being required when I'm in the shed are slim.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@the Canuck, rats like a compost bin for sure. Though maybe you saw mice or gerbils etc.
Posted 5 years ago # -
praying for mice.
Posted 5 years ago # -
According to this (section 11)...
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/bins-recycling/garden-waste-collection/6
...when you move house you are supposed to take your brown bin with you. Which kind of makes sense I guess.
Has anyone moved within Edinburgh and taken their bin with them?
Posted 3 weeks ago #
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