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Kent County Council plans to make £4m from tip charges

Kent County Council plans to make £4m by charging residents for disposing of building waste at tips.

The council aims to collect £4 for a black bin bag of rubble and £6 for plasterboard from residents at the 18 household waste recycling centres across the county.

There is set to be a daily limit of five standard-sized black bin bags.

Kent County Council hopes to make £4m by charging people to dispose of their building waste
Kent County Council hopes to make £4m by charging people to dispose of their building waste

KCC claims these costs will cover the price of disposal, treatment and haulage yet council officers predict at the current rate of use it will make profit of £2m.

Cllr Rory Love (Con) believes "this is a bad idea" as this will negatively affect simple householders who do the "right thing".

He said: "I think that it's right that where we act in local government to help people do the right thing and difficult for the wrong thing.

"We ought to be giving people he opportunity to do the right thing at a reasonable cost, something that is should be done through their council tax.

"What this report is saying on a revenue of £4m, £2m is the cost of processing the material and £2m is a profit on people doing the right thing which will put them off.

"If there is a need to charge for this waste if you charge people a little bit for the right thing they might do the right thing, if you charge people a lot they won't.

"The recycling centres should be funded by the whole of the community not those with soil and rubble."

He also raised an example where householders do improvements to their house with rubble left over it could cost them a £65 disposal cost and take four separate days due to daily limitations.

Cllr Love said: "What will actually happen is when people find they have four days of extra work taking this to the waste centre and the added green gases using their car they won't do it.

"I guess a lot of that will end up in the bottom of the wheelie bin over the next few months."

Cllr Rory Love with Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott and Chief Inspector Mark Weller
Cllr Rory Love with Kent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott and Chief Inspector Mark Weller

However the council hopes this will prevent residents from neighbouring Bromley and Surrey from escaping fees at their local authorities' tips by using Kent's facilities for free.

Residents in Bromley pay disposals costs of a minimum of £23 for up to 100kg of rubble.

Surrey county council charges £4 per bag of hardcore and £12 per sheet of plasterboard.

Postcode data collected at Swanley tip found 10% of customers travel from outside of the county, accounting for 750 tonnes of waste.

On top of that East Sussex county council plans to close two of its tips near the border and introduce payments at the remaining centres.

A KCC report found almost half of the waste disposal authorities in England have a fee for non household waste.

Cllr Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem), who was part of the group that created this plan, said: "This comes down to something very simple.

"If you look at what you have got at the moment and what is coming to us and the volume of housing being built across the county.

"It shows that we've not only got to find a way to improve what we've got and find money to build others.

"I think this is a great start but we can't afford to pay for others the come across our border and unfortunately we are going to have to charge our people as well."

Currently Kent residents only pay for the disposal of vehicle tyres at £2.50 per item for up to five tyres.

Despite fears this may increase the amount of flytipping in the area, a survey of local authorities in England discovered twelve local authorities who charge have seen no increase in the criminal activity, including Surrey.

Fly tipping in Buttermere Close, Gillingham, earlier this year
Fly tipping in Buttermere Close, Gillingham, earlier this year

Waste business development team leader at KCC, Hannah Allard: "I think we are in a really strong position in tackling flytipping than we ever have been across Kent.

"Flytipping is a criminal offence and we take this very seriously.

"We must not forget the majority of residents are law abiding citizens and many of them would never consider flytipping.

"This plan is to maintain the household waste facilities and does not leave fly tipping as a viable option as flytipping will not be tolerated.

"When the tyre charges were introduced there was a slight increase in fly tipping but also an increase in the amount of tyres at the recycling centres perhaps since they weren't aware that these facilities were available before."

However Cllr David Brazier (Con) is not convinced saying that builders will not pay the fees and will instead leave the waste in the countryside.

A twelve-week consultation on the proposed fees across Kent will be run throughout August, September and October.

Following the consultation a decision will be made early next year.

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