Cash-strapped Cheshire East says it has to introduce its garden bin charge a year before the government's expected waste collection changes because it needs the money.

The council intends to charge residents £56 a year from January to empty their garden waste bins and this will be done through an opt-in subscription service.

But the proposed charges, which will be discussed at tomorrow's (Thursday) meeting of the environment and communities committee, are to be implemented just a year before the government is expected to announce changes to the way waste is collected nationally.

The report to the committee acknowledges this and states: "Although we await final legislative confirmation of this, it is anticipated that weekly food waste collections will be required and that this new separate service will replace the existing co-mingled garden and food waste service for Cheshire East from 2025."

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked why the council was pressing ahead with changes in 2024, when central government is proposing changes which could impact those.

Cllr Mick Warren, chair of environment and communities committee, said: "The council is still awaiting further guidance from government regarding the Environment Act and until this is received, we are unable to assess the full impact on the authority's collection services.

"In the meantime, the council continues to face significant financial pressures and there is an overall £20m funding gap to fill. We therefore have no choice but to look to alternative sources of revenue generation – and to do that without delay."

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Cllr Mick Warren (Photo: Cheshire East Council)

He said the garden waste collection is not a core service councils are required to provide, the costs have risen considerably, but the council wants to continue it while also ensuring it can make required savings of around £4m.

"We can do this by introducing an annual subscription service," said Cllr Warren. "This is something which more than 65 per cent of local authorities across England have already done, including our neighbours in Cheshire West and Chester, with many of these schemes having been in place for several years."

He added: "We recognise that, as with any service change, there is always a period of adjustment and that we may continue to see some food waste being placed in garden bins once the subscription service has gone live. Where this is the case, we will not be issuing residents with fines.

"We do continue to encourage residents to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste, and this includes encouraging people to try home composting as it has huge benefits to people's gardens and is an excellent and environmentally-friendly way to limit food waste.

"If home composting is not an option, once the garden waste subscription service goes live – expected to be in January 2024 – residents can put food waste into their black bin.

"However, we hope that this will be a temporary measure as the council is awaiting further guidance from government regarding the Environment Act and proposals to assist all councils in providing a separate food waste collection for properties."