Shock £40 increase in bills from County Hall in Conservative budget proposals

Wiltshire Councillors today got to see the full impact of the Conservative Administrations annual budget proposals and for many households across Wiltshire these will mean an effective rise in their annual bill from County Hall of some 3.3%.
Buried in the extensive list of slashes to funding and service cuts is the announcement that the council will start charging households an extra £40 per year to collect their garden waste bin.

The new Garden Waste Tax being introduced by the Conservatives will hit many households across the county and, according to Liberal Democrat leader in Wiltshire Jon Hubbard, is a false economy which will lead to significant increased costs elsewhere as people start disposing of garden waste via alternative means that will cost the council more, such as fly tipping or adding garden waste to standard household waste collections.
"Not everyone is able to have a compost bin or bio degrader in their gardens," Jon commented, "and this Garden Waste Tax will hit households already stretched budgets hard.

"What's more, the Conservative's have chosen to ignore the results of their own consultation which clearly showed that Wiltshire Residents would prefer to see a cutback in the service, with collections suspended during the winter months, rather than the imposition of a new tax.
"As usual we have seen the Conservatives ignore what the people are saying and choosing to do their own thing. I have today written to the Cabinet Member responsible to ask how much the consultation that they chose to ignore cost Wiltshire Council Tax payers to fund and what the new administrative costs will be of maintaining the new paid-for service."