The cost of a permit for brown garden bin collections in Dundee is to rise again in 2024.
The charge was introduced in March 2020 in an effort to cover the cost of collecting waste, including grass and tree cuttings from people’s homes.
The initial cost was set at £35 a year, which led to outrage from local residents, but it was kept at £35 for 2021.
However, in 2022, Dundee City Council announced the fee would rise by 14% to £40 for 2022.
Then this year, the council increased the charge again to £42.50 – with the local authority urging locals to pay by the start of this week in order to have their brown bins emptied during the first collections in March.
Now, The Courier can confirm that the fee is set to rise to £45 from March 2024 – which would mean a hike of more than 28% in the cost since it was first introduced.
Residents’ anger at rising brown bin fees
Locals have already reacted with anger to the 2023 rise.
Posting on the Evening Telegraph Facebook page last month about the charge going up to £42.50, Margaret Dee said: “If I was young I would be taking to the skip but sadly not able to so I’ve paid.
“It’s ridiculous going up every year, we are being penalised for having a garden and keeping it maintained.”
Zoe Mckenzie wrote: “(It’s a) disgrace, I have never paid for my brown bin to be emptied – our rabbits eat the grass cuttings. We pay enough council tax.”
Mark Dorward posted: “The council want the Eden Project to come the city but are quite happy to penalise their green-fingered citizens.”
Steven Lyall said: “Some people will just throw it all over the streets and waste ground.”
However, not everyone is against the rising charges.
Gus Gillespie said: “If you’re not happy with the council services, dispose of the waste yourself.”
And Karen Cullen posted: “It’s still worth the money, it works out at 80p a week over the year (which is) less than a pint of milk.”
Raft of other charges set to go up in Dundee
The hike comes amid a raft of other fee rises for council services in the year ahead, including burials, weddings and parking.
The SNP administration also looks set to vote through a 4.75% council tax rise for 2023/24 when it sets its budget later this week.
Lib Dem councillor Daniel Coleman, whose party has previously opposed rises to the brown bin charges, said: “The Liberal Democrat group will try stop the SNP proposal to hike the garden waste collection charge yet again.
“At Thursday’s budget we will seek to cut it to £35 in an effort to support the recycling effort in Dundee.
“That would bring it back down to the charge level when it was originally introduced.
“We feel continually increasing the charge acts as a disincentive to recycling which is the opposite of what the council should be doing.”
Council leader hits out at ‘fantasy budgets’
But council leader John Alexander has hit out at “fantasy budgets” put forward by opposition parties.
Mr Alexander said: “I’m sure that any day now, the Liberal Democrats or Labour will tell us what they’ll reduce to balance the budget.
“If they want to cut the brown bin fee, they should tell the public what service they will cut as a result because that is the reality.”
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