A call has been made for community garden waste banks to be kept in the week when they are being taken away from Powys communities, including Newtown.
With the implementation of Powys County Council's new kerbside garden waste collection service, the council has said it is removing community garden waste banks from areas such as the Back Lane car park in Newtown.
Over the next two weeks, the Garden Waste Banks at 35 community recycling sites in the Powys will be taken away by PCC with the new collection service costing at least £30 on top of people’s council tax coming in to force.
The council says that one of the factors behind the decision is that the waste banks have been abused by fly-tippers and commercial gardeners.
But Cllr Mathew Dorrance is urging the council to rethink its decision.
Cllr Dorrance said: “Removing them will inconvenience our residents, make life more difficult and could result in a rise in fly-tipping when, as you know, the council’s fly-tipping clearance costs are already amongst the highest in Wales.”
“I acknowledge that the council has introduced a kerbside garden waste collection but this is a service that residents have to stump up an extra £30 – £35.
“Not everyone in our communities will be able to afford this and many will rightly question why they should when the council has just increased Council Tax by 9.5 per cent.”
On Powys County Council’s Facebook pages the move has been criticised as “short sighted” and “stupid”.
Cabinet Member for Recycling and Waste, Cllr Phyl Davies, said: “Green waste banks at community recycling sites are unique to Powys but unfortunately they have been open to abuse by both fly-tippers and commercial gardeners.
“We appreciate that the loss of the garden waste banks will require some adjustment from the community however we anticipate that the new kerbside service will increase the amount of compostable garden waste that we collect, provide a more convenient service for residents and also realise a saving to the authority.”
Those householders who do not wish to participate in the new service are able to continue to use the council’s household waste recycling centres or compost their green waste at home.
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter
