No rise in second brown bin charge for Mid Ulster households

Members were presented with a propose scale of charges for environmental services offered by the local authority for the 2023 / 24 financial year.

Among the proposed price increases, the kerbside collection of commercial waste is to increase by eight per cent, the cost of purchasing wheelie bins is to increase by eight per cent and rounded to the nearest pound, replacement parts and miscellaneous items will increase in cost by eight per cent and the price of bulky household waste collection is to increase by eight per cent as well.

It had also been proposed to increase the cost of the annual service charge for the collection of a second brown bin by eight per cent to £54.

However, councillors on the committee decided not to introduce this cost increase after the council’s assistant director of environmental services, Mark McAdoo confirmed the “cost impact would be small”.

Councillor Clement Cuthbertson expressed his concern at the increase in these prices and said that with a rate increase of 7.3 per cent agreed recently this price hike feels like “a double hit” on people’s wallets.

“I am having a bit of difficulty with this in relation to the price increase,” said Cllr Cuthbertson. “We are putting household rates up 7.3 per cent and then proposing to put another eight per cent on anyone who wants a second brown bin.

“We have had a lot of toing and froing on brown bin charges for anyone that wants a second one this past 12 months and we finally settled on a £50 price. Now it is proposed to go up to £54.

“Also, in relation to the eight per cent increase on commercial waste, I feel we could price ourselves out of being competitive.

“There are private operators coming in and lifting waste in towns and schools and while we are putting this charge up by eight per cent we have already increased the non-domestic rate by 5.8 per cent”

He continued: “This will probably be counter productive and actually reduce Council’s income as there will be more and more commercial premises that will go to a third party to get their waste collected for a reduced cost. I really think we need to look at this.” Should we be putting these charges up eight per cent after increasing rates by 7.3 per cent, it seems like a double hit?”

Cookstown Councillor John McNamee accepted “the charges are inflationary” and told the chamber “everything is going up” but asked what officers made of Cllr Cuthbertson’s concern the local authority could be pricing itself out of commercial waste collection.

Mr McAdoo replied that the council does not make any profit providing commercial wast collection services.

“We are only obliged to cover the costs of the individual service. I do know that those charges we are proposing are in and around the average costs being charged by others,” he said.

Councillor Brian McGuigan then proposed the recommendation to approve the increased charges for these services, telling the chamber “if we don’t accept this the deficit will have to be taken up by Council so we have no other choice”.

Cllr Cuthbertson said he would like to see the increased charge for a second brown bin removed telling the chamber “there will be an increase in people looking brown bins, especially in areas were recycling centres will potentially be closing”.

Cllr McGuigan’s proposal was seconded by Councillor John McNamee before Councillor Trevor Wilson asked if Cllr McGuigan would accept Cllr Cuthbertson’s request be incorporated into his proposal.

Cllr McGuigan asked what the cost would be and was told by Mr McAdoo there are a “very small number of people who uptake that annual service so the cost impact would be small”.

The Sinn Fein councillor said he could accept Cllr Cuthbertson’s request if the cost impact to the council would be “small” and the committee voiced its approval for the proposal to approve the increase in charges except for the annual service charge for a second brown bin.

The total estimated income from these proposed charges is approximately £400,000.