Harrogate tax payers will pay more as part of 'fairer' garden waste collection charges system in North Yorkshire

At the moment, there are seven different garden waste collection services in North Yorkshire, one for each district or borough.

Councils are not legally required to collect garden waste and carry it out on a discretioary basis.Charges vary from £25 for an annual permit in Richmondshire, to £41 in Harrogate;

the cost to have garden waste collected in Craven is £36.

An increase has already been agreed by all councils of six per cent from spring 2023.

Harrogate Borough Council, which is currently responsible for the service, will be abolished on April 1 along with the other district councils in the county as part of local government reorganisation to create a new bigger North Yorkshire Council and pave the way for regional devolution.

In the build-up to the handover, North Yorkshire County Council is proposing to bring all areas in the county in line with the regional average of £44 per year, and to charge £43.50 across the board.

The highest new rate will be in Harrogate, where the annual permit will be £43.50.

The service is currently free in Selby, though the county council is expected to revisit this.

North Yorkshire County Council says charges for the service have been frozen for most councils in recent years and in North Yorkshire they have fallen behind the regional average of £44 per year.

It is now proposing to bring all areas in the county in line with this and to charge £43.50 across the board.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for business and economic development, Coun Derek Bastiman, whose portfolio includes the management of waste disposal, said: “We recognise that the cost-of-living crisis is having an impact on residents and the need to be fair to everyone when looking to raise any fee or charge.

"We have looked carefully at what other councils in Yorkshire and the Humber charge and considered any special cases, such as Richmondshire.

"This charge is reasonable in terms of the regional picture and to cover the costs of continuing to deliver it given the financial pressures we face.

“In Selby, currently everyone is paying for the service through their taxes, whether they use it or not.

"That’s clearly not fair so we will be looking at that, too, in the coming weeks with a separate paper.”

The proposed changes would mean Harrogate district households that choose to pay for the service will see the charge increase by £2.50.Hambleton households will pay the next

highest at £40, followed by Scarborough and Ryedale at £38, Craven at £36 and Richmondshire at £25.

Based on a standard fee of £43.50, the service would expect to generate an additional £500,000, depending on the number of subscribers.

This income would be used towards paying for the costs of delivery.

The North Yorkshire County Council executive will be asked to agree the new rate on January 10.

In May the Tories secured a narrow overall majority on the new authority set to run all of North Yorkshire Council.

But the Lib Dems won ten of the 21 seats which will represent Harrogate on the new council, with the Tories taking nine.