Stafford Borough Council (SBC) will be charging £36 from January 2021 for the collection of our brown bins. Don’t want to pay? Well they simply won’t take it away.

This fee is unfair. Why?

Council tax will not be reduced if you don’t pay for collection.
SBC compost our waste in Stone and sell it to farmers and businesses (this has been confirmed by them in writing).
The fee was agreed prior to COVID-19 and has not been reviewed. The pandemic has hit everyone’s pockets hard and created a big financial deficit bigger than even WWII.
People who might not be able to afford may feel embarrassed by not having ‘THE sticker’ on their bin.
On top of this it will create an issue in our communities of fly tipping of waste or simply people neglecting their gardens and therefore ruining the image of some communities.

Councils are indeed under a lot of pressure to find savings but this is NOT the answer. £36 may not seem a lot to some people but to others it’s an extra financial burden, a back handed garden tax if you will.

Through COVID-19 many families have struggled to get even essential food vouchers for their children, affording this service to give a garden for their children to play safely is unfair.

Many people rightly take pride in their gardens for their own benefit and that of their neighbours and community, how dare SBC charge is when they already profit from our waste.