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AIBU?

Woudl this be dreadful bin fraud and get us all in trouble?

32 replies

BinFullOfAshes · 26/03/2013 17:46

They are introducing a charge to empty our garden waste bins next month.

A whole £30 per year. Actually a stealthy way of increasing council tax but whatever.

They've just sent all the bumf through and it says that for £15 a year you can get an extra bin collected from your house, you don't have to buy an extra bin, just register it to your address.

My parents and sister all live up the road. Would it be terriby criminal of us (me and my sister), do you think, to add two extra bins to my parents address, wheel our brown bins up the road and back every two weeks in the summer, and save ourselves £15 a year?

AIBU?

#firstworldproblems

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Nanny0gg · 26/03/2013 17:48

£15?

Is it really worth it?

No.

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Flojobunny · 26/03/2013 17:49

All that hassle to save yourself £15 a year? Really?

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LineRunnyEgg · 26/03/2013 17:52

How is it 'increasing your council tax'?

If you don't want your garden waste picking up from your doorstep, don't sign up for the scheme. Take it up the tip for free.

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BinFullOfAshes · 26/03/2013 18:00

It's not all that hassle. It's pulling a bin an extra 50 yards.

We already pay an eyewatering amount of council tax, bin collection is funded by that, they keep charging more and more and doing less and less, so as far as I can see the £30 pa is a sneaky tax.

It says on the letter that you can have extra bins collected, I don't think this woudl be totally nefarious, but maybe it is.

I am ponderous, is all.

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Gintonic · 26/03/2013 18:00

Make a compost heap?

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SugariceisaGoodEgg · 26/03/2013 18:03

Bollocks to paying £30 a year, cheeky gits!

Sort it yourself and get to the tip, bloody council.

Where are you in the country OP? this charge will spread in time I bet.

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LineRunnyEgg · 26/03/2013 18:07

But garden waste pick-up schemes like this are optional. You could compost it yourself for free, or take to the tip for free.

It's probably fine, what you are proposing to do, anyway, on the grounds that so few people would actually be bothered to do it for such a small annual saving.

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LineRunnyEgg · 26/03/2013 18:09

Out of interest, OP, how do you get rid of your garden waste at the moment?

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BinFullOfAshes · 26/03/2013 18:20

They pick it up at the moment. For 'free' (paid for out of the council tax).

That's the point. If this was a new thing, I'd be happy to pay. But it's not. They're taking away the collection unless you stump up extra for it. I just think we can use my mum's extra bins (and tbf she will use them when we're not, we just have grass mowings, she does Actual Gardening) and save half the cost.

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nagynolonger · 26/03/2013 18:48

People here have been paying for garden waste bins for years.

We chose not to bother because we already compost, burn or council tip our garden rubbish.

I would just pay up if I wanted a bin. I couldn't be bothered with dragging a wheelie bin up and down the road.

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MadameDefarge · 26/03/2013 18:50

not ponderous. pondering. just saying.

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marquesas · 26/03/2013 18:53

I don't understand - you pay an extra £30 but your parents would only pay £15 but they live in the same street. Do you mean that your parents will pay their own £30 and you will pay £15 on top of that? If that's the case surely neighbours could get together and pay £45 between two houses instead of £60 which doesn't seem to have been very well thought out.

Have I got that right?

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RhinestoneCowgirl · 26/03/2013 18:54

Erm we just pay the £30 for our green bin.

Our neighbour also uses our bin but then he cuts back back hedges and mows lawn in front of our house as well ad his own.

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WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo · 26/03/2013 18:56

do they collect food waste in the brown bin op?

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defineme · 26/03/2013 18:59

I think it would make you look like stingy twats in front of the neighbours.

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UniS · 26/03/2013 19:14

If you wish to drag a bin up n down the street I don;t see a problem with it. the bin will be collected from the registered address, the waste doesn't HAVE to have come from that address.

Where we live now garden waste is collected fortnightly free, at our old house it was collected ONLY in council approved decomposable bags that were sold for something like a pound a bag. so the more you used the more you paid.

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cocoachannel · 26/03/2013 19:38

I would happily pay £30 for garden waste to be picked up. We all schlep to the tip.

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thekidsrule · 26/03/2013 20:39

our green bin is still free

its a great idea (big garden,dont drive)

i would very much miss the service if they got rid,but wold be prepared to pay if they started charging,hope they dont though

op pay the extra

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LineRunnyEgg · 26/03/2013 20:45

I guess Councils are rationing services now. (See many other threads.) Loss of government grants are hitting everybody hard. (Council tax revenue is just a fraction of what councils have to spend btw.)

I would pay the money for an optional doorstep collection. At the moment I home compost, but my composting bin is full! I would pay £30 a year for a collection as long as it went for composting. I expect some people on here pay more. It's not much over a year.

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oldraver · 26/03/2013 20:51

Our council used to charge £30 a year for garden waste which on top of £1800 did piss me off so I cancelled it after a few years. We now get one free, though I tend to use it only half the year

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BinFullOfAshes · 27/03/2013 07:54

Nah, Mimi, I meant I was being boring Wink

Yes, it's £30 per household for the first bin, £15 for extra bins. I reckon I can give my bin to my mum and dad and have it back when I need it (which is about six times a year), and then drag it back up the road to be collected for cheaps.

Win/win.

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FredFredGeorge · 27/03/2013 08:00

Maybe your Mum and Dad could buy a dozen extra bins, then charge all your neighbours 20 quid for collection and start a little waste disposal business of their own.

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NoelHeadbands · 27/03/2013 08:04

Makes sense, I would.

You'd have to be very very careful that the Bin police didn't catch you in the act though. Those Bin Squad bastards can be ruthless.

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MadameDefarge · 27/03/2013 10:16

apologies bin. (narrow eyes) you called me Mimi! are your tiny hands frozen also?

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TempusFuckit · 27/03/2013 11:47

I guess it would be ethically okay as you are saving the council the cost of collecting from two different addresses.

Not entirely sure about all this stealth tax talk though. It's not a compulsory charge for a start. Plus you could argue that the previous situation, where it was paid for out of general taxes, meant that people without gardens were subsidising people with - and given that people without gardens are probably, as a group, worse off that would make it a regressive tax I think.

Although I may well be talking out of my arse ...

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