Housing developers in East Lothian could be charged extra to provide bins for new homes

Housing developers in East Lothian could be charged thousands of pounds extra by the council to provide bins for each new home.

A meeting of the council’s Labour administration cabinet will be asked to approve charges of £67 per house to provide a set of bins for new residents.

And officers putting forward the plan say the fee will not include a garden waste bin which will be paid for by an annual subscription.

A report on the proposals says East Lothian is one of the fastest growing council areas in Scotland with ‘significant housing developments, in build or planned across the county’.

It says the current spend on providing refuse and recycling containers is around £160,000 a year, which covers providing new homes with bins and maintaining the current stock, replacing lost or damaged ones.

East Lothian residents currently have six separate bins or containers for every household with a green household waste bin, brown garden waste bin, blue recycling box for paper and cardboard, a black or green box for glass, a white bag for plastic, metal and cartons and a food waste caddy.

At their budget meeting earlier this year councillors agreed a charge would be introduced from next year for garden waste collections.

The report to cabinet says introducing a charge for new housing would bring in £6,700 per 100 new homes.

It says: “Local authorities across the UK have a variety of different policies on charging for waste and recycling containers, with some charging for the supply of all containers to both new and existing properties, some for
replacement containers only and some for the supply of containers to new properties only.

“Others provide recycling containers free, but charge for non-recyclable waste containers.”

At next week’s meeting councillors will be asked to approve a £67 charge, excluding VAT, per property is imposed on all future housing developers with a full set of containers, excluding the garden waste bins, provided on payment.

Officers recommendation says: “The charge would be payable when the developer applies for street naming and/or property numbering.

“Once the property has been formally registered and the charge has been paid we would then deliver waste and recycling containers to the developer on a call off basis for them to distribute to properties as they become occupied.”