Plans to replace 160,000 grey wheelie bins with smaller ones came under fire at a meeting of Kirklees Council’s Cabinet.

The council’s ruling Labour group has included the proposal in its draft budget for 2025-26, which is due to go out for public consultation.

The council says swapping the current 240-litre grey bins for 180-litre bins – about three-quarters of the size – would cut the cost of waste disposal and make significant savings.

The draft budget said the move would save £131,000 in 2025-26 and £395,000 the year after.

Opposition councillors at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall wanted to drill into the finances – but got few answers.

Former council leader Clr Cathy Scott (Dewsbury East) said buying all 160,000 homes a new bin would cost taxpayers a “fortune” and the sums didn’t add up.

“If we are replacing 160,000 bins, what is the council going to do with the old ones – burn them, bury them or put them on the side of the road?” she asked.

“When the council talks about being cleaner and greener, you are just creating a massive carbon footprint. You should put a freeze on this as you are just going to cost council taxpayers a fortune because of this stupidity.”

Liberal Democrat leader Clr John Lawson (Cleckheaton) suggested making the bin swap voluntary. Smaller households could cope with smaller bins but larger families couldn’t.

Clr Lawson also called for the council to allow more waste items to be recycled and other councillors warned about an increase in fly-tipping.

 

 

Green group leader Clr Andrew Cooper (Newsome) repeated the question about what would happen to all the old bins and quipped: “Maybe we could have a competition among local residents about what to do with them?”

More seriously, Clr Cooper asked how much the new bins would cost and what the payback period would be so councillors could judge whether it was money well spent.

Clr Munir Ahmed, Cabinet member for the environment, said he didn’t have any financial information to hand but could provide it later.

There was also no answer to the questions about what would happen to the tens of thousands of old wheelie bins.

Deputy council leader Clr Moses Crook said it cost the council money for every tonne of general waste sent to landfill or for incineration, hence the savings that could be made despite the outlay for new bins.

The suggestion had come from council officers and Clr Crook added: “Other councils have moved to smaller bins so it’s not a maverick suggestion from officers.”

For the first time the council is to put its budget out for public consultation so people can make their views known before a final decision is made in March.

 

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