Woman slams ‘unfair’ bin charge rule after moving to Huntingdon village

‘I rang them because I thought maybe there’s been an error on the website’

A woman has slammed a council for its “unfair” charges for garden waste to be collected. Radha Spratt, who only moved to Grafham in Huntingdonshire, last year, recently decided she was going to use her garden waste bins.

When she went to subscribe to secure her garden waste bin from Huntingdonshire District Council on August 14, she was left surprised by how much it would cost. She said: “I went online because that’s where you have to purchase your subscription.

“I saw that for one bin they charge you £57.50, and then for an additional bin it’s £30. And that subscription runs from April 1 until March 31. It said regardless of when in the year you pay for it, it will always run out on March 31.”

Radha believes it’s “unfair” that no matter what time of the year you choose to subscribe for the bin, people are charged the same. She added: “I thought this was a little bit unfair because for instance, if you’re moving into a new area maybe like February and you need garden waste, you shouldn’t really be charged that much for the whole year.”

Radha called the council to confirm if the charges online were true. She said: “I rang them because I thought maybe there’s been an error on the website or I wasn’t understanding the information properly.

“The lady I spoke to confirmed what was on the website was the right pricing structure. I said to her ‘don’t people complain about this’, and she said ‘people complain all of the time’.” Radha questioned if people complain, then why was the pricing set the way it was.

She added: “You can’t realistically hire a private company to get rid of water every few weeks, and the other option is taking garden waste to the tip. But, you can’t do that either because you don’t want to put it in your car, so what are you supposed to do?”

Radha feels the council “can’t justify” a flat fee, especially in a “cost of living crisis”. As a solution, Radha feels the subscription should be charged on a pro-rata basis or in intervals over the year, such as charged every quarterly.

On the HDC website, it confirms that the annual subscription runs between April 1 and March 31. It said: “Even if you join mid-year, you’ll be charged for the full year.”

If people don’t wish to sign up to the subscription, the council offers advice on garden waste community initiatives.

This offers several options including: Free Loose Compost, community compost schemes, subsidised home composters, shared bins, parish community bins, parish council allocation for land management, assisted collections, household recycling centres and free compost for parish councils.

Huntingdonshire District Council was approached for comment.