Walsall Council makes no promises over keeping garden waste collections free of charge
Walsall Council has made no promises over whether or not to bring in charges for garden waste bin collections.
The portfolio holder for street pride was quizzed on the matter in a debate about the new food waste collection service, set to be introduced before March 31, 2026.
Independent member for the Blakenall ward, Councillor Pete Smith, asked for an update on the food waste decision at a council meeting on Monday, September 29.
Earlier this year cabinet members at Walsall Council approved, without consultation, that households will be issued a small kitchen caddy, and a large kerbside caddy for weekly collections.
It was one of two options presented; the other was to mix the food waste with garden waste in the brown bin for weekly collections.
The decision faced backlash and scrutiny, including from Councillor Mike Bird, who at the time was not leader of the council.
Cabinet members rejected Councillor Bird’s recommendation of looking into alternatives and continued with its plan of offering households two caddies.
A couple of weeks later, the leader of the council at the time, Garry Perry, resigned from his post. He was replaced by Councillor Mike Bird and a new cabinet was chosen.
On Monday, Councillor Smith asked if any changes will be made to the service given the change in leadership.
Portfolio holder for street pride, Councillor Suky Samra, said the council had listened to members and last week launched a consultation for the public to share their preferences.
The consultation asks residents if they would prefer option one of having one kitchen and one kerbside caddie, which includes the free collection of small electrical items, or option two of mixing the food and garden waste together in the existing brown garden waste bin.
Councillor Pete Smith said to Councillor Samra that option two would rule out any possibility of the introduction of charges for garden waste collections.
Councillor Smith said: “If you go for option two, at a stroke you will be preventing the council from considering bringing in charges for the brown waste collection.
“Every year I have a meeting with officers about the budget and I know one of the things that’s on the table every year behind the scenes is charging for the garden waste.
“Option two will at least guarantee the residents of our borough that they won’t be charged for garden waste.”
Councillor Samra said out of 90,000 households in Walsall who have a garden waste bin, on average, 24,000 of them do not present it for collection every fortnight.
He said: “You suggest that combining garden and food waste collections might be more viable and acceptable to many households. While this may be true in part, it is important to highlight that more than 20 per cent of present households with a brown bin rarely present it for collection.
“Therefore in areas with little or no garden waste, residents may find a small caddy far more practical than a large garden waste bin they will seldom use.
“Furthermore, a separate food waste collection service would offer additional benefits, such as free door step collection of small electrical items. Something that may be more useful to some households than an all year round garden waste collection.
“What we need to do is wait for that survey to come back to see what residents ultimately want.”
Walsall Council’s garden bin collection service has continued to remain free of charge, bucking the trend compared to the six local authorities which neighbour the borough.
According to FOI figures, the cost of the service during 2024 was £1,150,000.
The figure is reached as the fleet, including vehicle hire, maintenance and fuel, cost £192,000, staff costs are £418,000, disposal of the waste is £450,000 and the cost of bin repairs, replacement and delivery totals £20,000.
