A PETITION has been launched calling on Cheshire West and Chester to scrap its impending green bin charges.

The authority recently rubber-stamped a new 10 year waste strategy which included controversial measures to charge residents £40-per-year to have their green bin emptied every fortnight.

The plans have proven highly divisive, with a clear split in the Labour and Conservative groups resulting in some bad tempered exchanges in recent meetings.

The ruling Labour administration said the charges were needed to help balance the books due to government funding cuts and rising social care costs, while pointing out that other councils – including some Conservative authorities – had similar charging policies for what is a non-statutory service, meaning councils are not legally required to provide it.

But some Conservatives have branded the move a ‘stealth tax’, and said hard-pressed residents in the borough had already been hit by Council Tax increases in recent years.

Now the Ellesmere Port and Neston Conservative group has started a petition calling on the council to scrap what it called the 'green bin tax’.

The group's chairman Lee Evans, said: “Labour pushed through their waste strategy, including the new £40 green bin tax, against enormous local opposition.

"It's clear that the concerns of local people were completely ignored.

"Residents in Ellesmere Port and Neston are sick and tired of being taken for granted by Labour.

"They want their opposition to the green bin tax made clear.

“That's why we have created this petition and are calling on the council to pause, listen to local residents, and reverse their unfair plans for this new tax."

Cllr Louise Gittins, leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council, said: “Cheshire West and Chester Council’s waste management strategy has been accepted by the Full Council.

“This follows an extensive three-month consultation period with residents of the borough which started in January of this year.

“The decision is part of a range of measures the council must take to achieve a balanced budget following costs of COVID, a decade of cuts from central government and the rising cost of caring for elderly and vulnerable people in our borough.

“Information gathered through the consultation exercise was used to develop the strategy. The council is now in the process of preparing to implement the new strategy.

“We want residents to play an active role in this and we will continue to seek their views as the plans progress.”

The petition can be found at: https://www.epnconservatives.co.uk/news/sign-petition-scrap-green-bin-tax