The Mayor of Watford, Peter Taylor says the decision to empty black bins every two weeks and charge for the collection of green bins was not taken lightly, but still is “the right decision”.

After a cabinet meeting on January 2 where councillors backed plans for a new bin collection system, the decision was met with a backlash of people questioning ‘the logic’ behind the changes and people refusing to pay for garden waste removal.

Here is what the Mayor had to say about the collection changes.

The cost of collection

Households in Watford will now have four bins from July – a black general waste bin, a blue lidded recycling bin, a green garden waste bin and a brown outdoor food bin – and will pay either £45 per green bin per year or £40 per bin per year with direct debit.

People with council-related benefits can instead pay a reduced £35 per bin per year.

The Mayor sees these prices as reasonable but understands households may decide against opting into a paid garden collection.

He explained: “Ultimately the prices work out to about £1.50 per collection, people have to decide whether they think it’s worthwhile paying that service. People can make their own judgement if it’s worthwhile to them.

“The income we generate from garden waste won’t cover the full cost of the service, so it will still be subsidised, and the council will have to subsidise the rest of the cost.

“I can completely understand people saying they don’t want to pay for collection of garden waste – but many councils don’t even offer it.”

Will bins overflow?

With the new collection system, some people in Watford have suggested that regular waste bins will become overloaded and people may have to result in flytipping to dispose waste.

Mr Taylor believes the disposal of general waste will not be an issue despite less regular collection, as most waste can be recycled.

He said: “I think it’s important to remember that two bins (food and recycling) will still be collected from every house every week.

“Over 60 per cent of household waste can be recycled and we still have a big recycling bin collected and a new additional food waste collection, so I think people will still have an excellent service, one which would not be an excuse for flytipping.

“Also, Three Rivers introduced this exact change a few years ago and have not seen any increase in flytipping.”

He added: “Three Rivers are the third highest in the whole country for their recycling level. We’re going to have pretty much an identical system to theirs, so we do want to see an increase in recycling.”

Families of five or more people, or households with specific medical situations, will however be entitled to request larger black bins if they feel it is necessary.

How about council tax?

In a previous article rounding up some concerns about the new collection scheme, the question was asked whether council tax would be reduced due to a less regular general waste collection service.

Mr Taylor responded in saying that the wellbeing of those who cannot afford services are important, but added: “At the moment when you pay £1 of council tax, Watford Council gets about 15p, so most of that money goes towards Hertfordshire County Council and the police – we get a small proportion of that.

“I’ve got a commitment that council tax will never go above more than inflation, so this year the proposal in our budget is to increase council tax by £5 for the average house.

“It’s a modest two per cent increase in council tax. I understand a lot of people are under financial pressure, so we got to make sure people’s money is spent wisely and council tax is kept down as long as possible.”

Why was change needed?

The Mayor reiterated that the decision in introducing an altered collection scheme was in a push to encourage further recycling, but also to work around government cuts to the council.

Mr Taylor said: “Over the last ten years, we’ve seen our funding from central government cut by 70 per cent, that’s £4million a year that we’ve had cut to our funding.

“I don’t think we have the option to say let’s continue with business as usual when faced with a four million cutting in funding.

“What I could do is borrow lots of money, hike up the council tax, cut services to homeless or most vulnerable – but I’m not prepared to do that. I’ve not taken the decision lightly, but I think it’s the right decision.”

Watford Borough Council are looking to extend their contract with Veolia and introduce additional vehicles to ensure good service.