Calls for tax rebate after 'shambolic' bin rollout

Residents could be compensated following what has been described as a chaotic rollout of a new bin service.

East Suffolk Council introduced its Better Recycling Scheme in June as part of the government's drive to standardise and simplify household recycling across the UK.

But many households said it took weeks for waste to be collected and one resident described it as "shambolic".

The Conservative and Labour opposition now wants the administration to consider a 0.2% rebate on the local authority's share of the overall council tax bill.

A Band D property currently pays £2,334.80 in council tax per year - 8.47% of which goes to East Suffolk Council, meaning the authority receives £197.42 from each Band D property per year.

The rest of that amount is shared between Suffolk County Council, the police and crime commissioner for Suffolk, and town and parish councils.

This means a 0.2% rebate, based on 2026/27 figures, would see each Band D household receive a reduction of their overall annual bill of 39p.

Conservative councillor Mark Jepson said the rollout had "been plagued with operational and performance issues".

"[That] has eroded our residents' trust in the council and its administration," he said, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"The strength of feeling regarding the poor execution of this rollout must not be trivialised."

Since June, residents have been asked to separate recycling into additional bins, including food waste caddies which are supposed be collected by the council.

The authority - a Green, Liberal Democrat and independent coalition - delivered thousands of new bins, rolled out new vehicles and arranged new collection schedules.

Following teething problems, the authority served a notice of breach of contract in July on the council-owned East Suffolk Services Limited.

Data from that same month showed one in 10 collections were not completed on time and were not carried out at all in some "hard-to-reach areas".

One resident who said he had experienced missed collections was Chris Dow, from Grundisburgh near Woodbridge, who described the new bin collection service as "shambolic".

Labour councillor Peter Byatt, who backs calls for the tax rebate, said "all the mistakes" needed to be addressed and the rollout fully reviewed.

"A significant number of residents have given up on putting the food waste bins out and we've been disappointed with the response from the administration," he said.

Deputy leader of the council, Paul Ashton, previously admitted the rollout had "not been good enough" and apologised to those affected by missed collections.

The motion will be discussed at the next full council meeting on Wednesday.

East Suffolk Council said it would not comment on the proposal ahead of the meeting.

However, councillor Paul Ashton, deputy leader of the council, accepted that there were still "some issues to resolve" but said things were looking up.

"The improvement programme introduced by the council is having a positive impact with collection rates at over 98% towards the end of last week," he said.

"We remain alert to any concerns, however we are pleased that overall recycling rates are up from 44% to 56% compared to last year and there has also been a 34% reduction in the tonnage of non-recyclable rubbish being disposed of."

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