Mid Ulster bin charges will be reviewed in January

By Adam Morton, Local Democracy Reporter

MID Ulster District Council’s environment committee will review the cost to residents of a second brown bin at its January meeting, it has been confirmed.

A paper outlining the proposed charges for the collection and disposal of commercial waste, the sale of wheeled bins and parts; the provision of bulky waste collections; second brown bin collections; the acceptance of trade waste at recycling centres and cemetery charges for the 2022/23 financial year was discussed at a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, November 9.

The paper explains a 240L brown bin costs £30 and those wishing to get a second brown bin collected are asked to pay an annual service charge of £50.

Councillor Clement Cuthbertson proposed a second brown bin was offered to those who need it, free of charge.

Seconding the proposal Councillor Meta Graham said she had been contacted by a lot of residents about the charge and also asked that if the fee could not be waived for everyone, that Council waive it for pensioners.

Councillor Frances Burton said she would agree with what had been said before and said it was likely to be older people requiring the second brown bin.

“I would concur with the previous speaker a lot of elderly people have contacted me and they are from the era where they bought houses with much bigger gardens than some of the developments would have now,” said Cllr Burton.

“I am of the understanding that a lot of elderly people who struggle with larger gardens will need this and we really should take a sensible look at this if at all possible.”

Council’s assistant director of Environmental Services, Mark McAdoo said there are currently between 50 and 60 households paying for a second brown bin.

He also told the chamber he was of the understanding it had been agreed the policy would remain in place until a review in September 2022.

Councillor Cuthbertson disagreed with this recollection and said he was of the understanding the previous agreement had been to review the charges at this meeting.

This view was backed by Cllr Burton who said that was also her understanding of the situation.

At this point, the committee’s Chair, Councillor John McNamee, asked if members would be content to hold fire on any changes until officers brought back more detail on the proposal to the committee.

Cllr Cuthbertson agreed to take the proposal off the table provided it was discussed at January’s meeting.

“These charges are due to take effect on April 1. So January will still give us time to act before April.

“The reason it was left to autumn was we did not want to put Council to the trouble of working out how to pay back 50 odd people and that is why we left it until November,” he said.