County councillors have backed plans to charge for non-household waste at the Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRC), including those at Margate and Richborough.
KCC operates 18 HWRCs, providing facilities for the recycling and disposal of more than 30 different types of waste but is not obligated to accept non-household waste at its sites, such as soil, rubble, hardcore and plasterboard.
Each year Kent’s sites receive approximately 185,000 tonnes of waste and 3.5 million visits, at a cost of approximately £10 million to the taxpayer.
Its environmental performance sees more than 99% of Kent’s household waste now recycled, treated or recovered to produce energy, with less than 1% sent to landfill.
KCC already charges for car and motorbike tyres which are also categorised as non-household waste. It is now backing the charges of £4 per bag for soil, rubble and hardcore and £6 per bag of Plasterboard.
Agreement on the scheme was reached during a meeting of the Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee today (January 17). It comes following an eight-week consultation where almost 3,000 people responded.
The majority of comments made during the consultation were concerned about an increase in flytipping. KCC says other authorities that have implemented similar schemes have not reported an increase and there is no significant evidence to link charging for non-household waste at HWRCs with increased fly-tipping.
Following the meeting, a final decision will be made by KCC cabinet member Mike Whiting on whether to go ahead with the recommendation.
This will increase fly tipping, also taxpayers will pay twice, through your council tax and then when you go the tip, I voted against it today but outvoted by the extremists in the Tory party
So can they drop the charges in the Council tax that covers stuff like this ? Bloody Tories on the fiddle again. Paying twice for the same service. Only those who can afford to pay twice will take their rubbish to the tip and the rest will fly-tip, costing the council more to get rid off than what they would save by stopping free access to drop it off at the tip. Crazy Tories again!
What a joke, why do we bother, the good people of Thanet try to help to keep thanet tidy and all the council do is keep hitting the people in their pockets, but the council can spread £3m on refurbishment of the town hall, sort the roads out in thanet, bring colour to Margate seafront (flowers) all the other towns Ramsgate Broadstairs clifftonville etc always have plenty of colour, maybe Margate can have a Christmas tree this year without begging for one, £3m can go along way in thanet on the things we need.
Can we see the data that fly-tipping has not increased in other areas where this policy has been adopted? Seems pretty incredulous really.
If travellers can flytip with no consequences so can thanet residents
The council charge for street cleaning there are many streets in Ramsgate that have not been cleaned for a year at least a year so my husband swept up 8 bags of leaves outside our house and in our road and when he took the bags to the Margate tip.
He was told “ sorry your vehicle is classed as a small van and as such you have to apply for a permit” my husband explained where the leaves came from. The man said “we can all say that and make it up.”
Well done, Cllr Barry Lewis, yet another destructive policy from KCC, The council that specialises in creating social issolation with their bus cuts, are now going to specialise in making our county a dump for unscrupulous traders.
Short sighted self servatives.
Once again, we are forced to ask why the Tory Central Government in Westminster is still reducing the funds available to local Councils when they keep telling us how brilliant they are at managing the economy! And how Brexit will bring loadsamoney into Britain through not paying the EU and from enjoying all this new trade with Outer Mongolia, or Moldova, or wherever.
If they believed this themselves, surely they would be bunging their own Tory-run Councils a few extra bob to make them popular. But they don’t, because they know their version of Brexit will be dire. But they would still prefer economic disaster to having to pay proper taxes under a Labour Government.
Well Kellogs, nailed it again, what a load of rubbish.Labour!! you are having a laugh!!!
Surely the number of bags of rubble, soil, hardcore and plasterboard taken by individuals to the tip is minimal in any event ? Surely most householders with any significant quantity of such waste would hire a skip rather than have to bag it, load it into their car and then unload it again ?
In any event, you cannot get too much in a bag as it becomes too heavy to lift (or the bag rips) so the cost of £24 or £36 for half a dozen bags is more likely to induce residents to dump it in the nearest alley, lay-by, field or other free and convenient location.
This is so silly. The cheapest and easiest material for the council to get rid of is soil and hardcore (OK not plasterboard, though). So, how much will this measure actually save? A tiny, tiny amount. I don’t think it will lead to much flytipping … what will happen is that people will drip feed it into their regular waste bins. So a recylable material will end up mixed with non-recyclables. This is very, very silly by the council.
Mike , i think you are spot on , people will just add stuff into their non recyclable rubbish and dump stuff in quiet alleyways too.
A great deal of Fly Tipping is due to people not being able to pay the Council to take away unwanted items, sometimes minor building materials after a bit of DIY. The removal of any rubbish from a house should be free, including old furniture, beds, armchairs etc, thats the only way to stop Fly Tipping.
A fly tipping charter which will cost Thanet District Council more money and Kent County Council in clearing up the rubbish dumped by the roadside, whoever made this decision should be sacked as it is the most ridiculous decision made in many years.
Its a diabolical decision , Fly tipping will go out of control and be happening everywhere , nobodies going to pay deposite rubble , soil or plasterboard at the tip !