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Residents in central London are to be hit with a rubbish collection charge after a council lost £17million in the Icelandic bank collapse.
Westminster is to reintroduce the charge for "bulk rubbish" from next Monday, triggering fears that streets will become dumping grounds as people try to avoid the new £20 fee.
The service, allowing three collections a year per household, was introduced free of charge 10 years ago following increasing numbers of fridges, TVs, washing machines and mattresses being dumped in the street. But this is being abandoned as Westminster fights to recoup millions of pounds of taxpayers' money it invested in Icelandic bank Kaupthing, which collapsed in October last year. The charge is expected to make the council £110,000 a year.
The Tory council has also introduced cash-saving measures such as selling street signs on eBay and bringing in parking charges for motorbikes.
Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group on Westminster council, said: "The streets will look more shabby and rubbish-strewn as people avoid the new charge." A Westminster spokesman said the charge was to stop the system being abused and that several other councils had a similar fee.
Reader views (5)
>>The charge is expected to make the council £110,000 a year. At that rate it will take 1545 years to repay the 17m excluding interest.
- Peter, Harrow, UK, 15/09/2009 13:54
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> "A Westminster spokesman said the charge was to stop the system being abused"
Spin alert!
If they wanted to do that they'd require residents to book their scrap-appliance collection, keep records, and limit people to something sensible like one appliance of each type no more frequently than every two years. Other councils have no problem doing this.
What the are doing is utterly stupid. It costs ten times as much to collect and clear up a dumped appliance, and that's assuming it's dumped at the roadside rather than in the middle of a road! And dumping is quite certainly what will happen. What do they think has changed since ten years ago, apart from residents being even more hard-up because of the recession?
Residents - I'd rather you didn't break the law, but if you must, find out where your counsellor lives, and dump it on his driveway or outside his house.
- Nigel, London, 15/09/2009 13:12
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I am sure I read recently that Iceland had agreed to repay all financial losses.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 15/09/2009 11:29
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I was under the impression that council tax (Poll Tax) was used to cover the cost of refuse collection.
Silly me!
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 15/09/2009 10:51
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Glad I'm leaving London next week.
But how about we tax MPs instead - particularly those at the forefront of the expenses scandal? After all, wasn't it the inept bunch at Westminster who precipitated this mess?
- Jock, London, 15/09/2009 10:32
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