Brown bucket charges for West Lothian garden waste 'could be binned by Scottish Government'
dailyrecord.co.ukA proposed £50 charge for West Lothian residents to have garden waste collected may not last for long, it has been suggested, amid reports the Scottish Government would force councils to pick up the cost.West Lothian Council is expected to introduce the charge as part of this year budget plans.And the council leader said while they were following other council across Scotland in charging residents for the service he believed it was the intention of the Scottish Government to make it a statutory service.This would mean the council had to provide it, although it was suggested funding would be provided from the Government for this - but only if they move now to bring in a charge.The council is already being forced to reduce spending and change a wide range of non - statutory services because of insufficient funding being provided by the Scottish Government, combined with increasing costs.Non-statutory services are services which councils are not legally obliged to provide.
Currently, garden waste collection is not a statutory service and some councils do not provide any garden collection.Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick said: "I don't think anyone wants to pay for a garden waste collection, but the options available to the council are now very limited and that is why the majority of councils in Scotland already have similar charging schemes."He added: "We are looking to put in place garden waste charges as it's a non-statutory service."We understand however that the Scottish Government is intending making it a statutory service.
The Scottish Government providing funding for that service would make it possible for us to remove the garden waste charge in future."It is possible that if we do not introduce a charge now, then
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