COUNCILLORS at West Devon Borough Council’s hub committee were facing a difficult decision this week, as they looked at the possibility of charging for the collection and disposal of garden waste.

This service is currently free in West Devon and councillors felt that it should be discussed by full council so that all of the Borough Councillors could discuss the issue and make the final decision.

If the full council do approve the move to introduce charging for garden waste services, no changes would be made until after the end of the council’s current waste contract, which ends on March 31, 2017.

Despite the fact that 45 per cent of other councils across the country already charge for garden waste services, at the meeting many of the West Devon Borough councillors made clear that they would rather not have to introduce the charges.

However, as the council’s, lead member for commercial services, Cllr Robert Sampson, explains, this is something that if rejected may have to be considered again in the future.

He said: “The council has a working group which is made up of officers and councillors. They have done a great deal of work on this subject, looking at models for garden waste collections from many other authorities. I have to say that they have done an incredibly thorough job and looked at all of the issues concerned.

“Personally I would like to leave things as they are. It is a free service and works well, but we have to address the possibility of charging for this service in order to protect the entirety of our council services.

“Collecting garden waste is not a service that we have to provide, but is something that we have been really pleased to provide throughout the borough.

“With continued cuts in government funding, we have to consider seriously if and how we should continue to provide the ‘nice to have’ services in order to protect the vital front line services that we must provide. If we decide not to do this now, we may have to consider it again in the future.

“Sacks could be barcoded to minimise the risk of their ‘going walkabout’ which has been a problem from time to time with the present sacks.”

A garden waste service which is charged for would enable residents to continue to dispose of the same volume of waste, which is twice what most authorities allow.

As mentioned, the service would be a sack collection not a wheelie bin collection and would also create a more cost-effective service for the council.

West Devon Borough Council would be able to design the service to accommodate those people who want it and not on standby for those who may not.