Topic: | Re:Labour's new £1 million garden tax | |
Posted by: | Ben Owen | |
Date/Time: | 09/09/11 11:10:00 |
Over the course of a year, I reckon I only use the garden waste collection service once a month. Of course, I would be upset at having to fork out an extra £40 per year, but only because I've become so used to having it collected as part of my Council Tax. Like David, if charges were imposed, I would definitely want to join forces with my neighbour(s) and go halves, thirds or even quarters! Sorting out whose garden the bin is kept in would be harder to resolve. If others had the same idea then potentially the amount of garden waste collected from residents would be the same, but the amount brought in would be less than forecasted. But: if Council Tax was put up by £40 per year (or £3.30 per month) and we weren't told it was to cover the cost of collecting garden waste would be so upset about the rise? But more importantly, should those on lower incomes be subsidising the better off? If you were to ask those who don't have access to a garden whether they would prefer to have council tax frozen for another year, and for bin and recycling collections to continue on a weekly basis free, provided that £40 would be needed to be collected from those who thave their garden waste collected for free then it is fairly obvious what the answer will be. Do those who don't have gardens have a say, a voice, a vote? And it definitely won't affect recycling rates of cardboard, plastic etc since we have got into the habit of doing this already. |