The plan to introduce charges for garden waste collections in Lichfield and Burntwood has been called back in for scrutiny at Lichfield District Council.
Under the proposals, agreed by the local authority’s Cabinet, households would need to opt-in for collections – at a cost of £36 per bin each year.
But a meeting of the leisure, parks and waste management overview and scrutiny committee next week will re-examine the proposals after five Conservative councillors – Bob Awty, Tim Matthews, Mark Warfield, Ashley Yeates and Brian Yeates – said issues such as the effect of the charges on groups such as “the elderly and less well-off” needed further examination.
However, the Labour opposition group said the Tory members should have spotted the issues the so-called ‘bin tax’ earlier given the scrutiny committee has already discussed the plans twice.
Cllr Sue Woodward, Labour group leader on Lichfield District Council, said: “Where have these councillors been for past four months?
“They’ve had every opportunity, as Labour members have, of opposing the charges. I’ve had several conversations about it with lead members. Why haven’t they? They seem to think that scrutiny is just something that happens at the periodic meetings, if that, and fail to make any effort to engage in the huge challenges councils are facing.
“It was clear when the proposals were considered in confidence that few members had really thought about this at all even though the hint was there in December.
“Those who had actually read their papers were supporting the proposal, even though they realised it was a tough call, but now it looks like panic has set in, especially as elections are coming up.
“My Labour colleague, Cllr Sharon Banevicius, and I expressed a whole range of concerns, particularly relating to the impact on older, disabled and disadvantaged people but only one Conservative member supported us. At the end of the meeting, all members except me and Cllr Banevicius voted to support the proposals in principle pending a further report.
“That report came to the Committee again on March 8. Again, it was agreed by Conservative members. It then came to Cabinet on April 4 and was agreed with an amendment by the Cabinet member to review the impact of the additional charge for off-line applications on older and disabled people.
“I look forward to further debate on this but suspect that it may just be a cynical move to put the decision on hold.”
Cllr Banevicius accused the Conservative councillors of stalling the charge plans in a bid to avoid it impacting on county council elections on May 4.
“It was disappointing really to see so few Tory members using scrutiny as an opportunity to challenge or question the report,” she said. “It seems that they just don’t listen to local residents and then have to try to shut the stable door after the horse has bolted.
“Can this late call in now, after months of discussion, have anything to do with the fact that there are elections in four weeks? Just a thought, but they shouldn’t take us for fools.
“We will continue to oppose this extra cost for hard-pressed residents and hope they join us in opposition this time.”
The brown bin charges will be discussed at the meeting on April 18.
