YEP Letters: January 23

New rubbish tip charges: readers’ views

People taking their household rubbish to recycling sites in Leeds will soon be charged for dumping certain types of waste it has been announced. Charges depending on items will be payable at rubbish tips under the new rules for “non regular household waste” Leeds City Council said. Examples range from a single tyre – which will cost £1.50 to dispose of – to an £81.60 charge for a trailer-full of plasterboard. They come into force from February 5 and the chargeable waste includes rubble and plasterboard along with soil and tyres.We asked YEP readers for their views and here’s what some of them said on social media..

Kevin Lawson

On top of a projected 5.9 per cent increase in council tax Government has allowed councils to charge an extra one per cent (now three per cent referendum trigger point last year two per cent).

Police up, adult precept up. Yet we can give away money hand over fist to EU and Macron. It is a joke paying more for less.

Sarah Wilson

Are they going to be surprised when flytipping increases just like it did when it became nearly impossible to get rid of a fridge or sofa.

Katrina Nanna Kat Burnell

Bonfire nights will increase then, why ask people to recycle and get rid of rubbish in a proper manner just to rip them off?

You will regret it because people don’t have the money.

Alex Luty

I thought the idea of the tip was to stop fly tipping, used by responsible people and funded by council tax?

Not responsible people charged, while irresponsible people fly tip, and the responsible people charged again (through increased council tax) to clear them up?

Pete Bradshaw

We all know that waste has to decrease, but charging isn’t the way to do it.

It just drives illegal dumping. The only way to reduce waste is to encourage manufacturers to use recyclable or biodegradable packaging and educate the population about recycling, then make the facilities available to do so. What I don’t understand is how the council think this will help. The complain about the amount of fly tipping they have to clear up and the amount it costs them, but at the same time make it harder to dispose of waste. Financially this will be net even for them because all the money they make will be spent clearing up flytipped waste.

Gip Dammone

I suppose it’s back to seeing loads of junk on the quieter lanes and ginnels of our fair city again. Nice one, Leeds City Council.

David Armitage

Welcome to pay twice Britain, that will be more rubbish dumped on back street roads.

Well done, Leeds City Council, then the council tax will go up again because it will need collecting off the road side.

Beryl Patrick

Another excuse for people to dump rubbish where they please. How many more things are the council going to charge for? Absolute madness.

Sylvia Judd

I think this is a really stupid idea because it won’t reduce the amount of waste it will just result in people dumping it up country lanes. Does the council think it’s cheaper to send out a wagon and men to clean up the fly tipping rather than people take it to the proper place?

Lorraine Houlden

Was it Gordon Brown who started a tax on waste. £90 per ton if I remember correctly. MPs need lobbying to repeal it, but hang on was it something do do with the EU? If so there’s nothing we can do about it. Thick northerners voting for Brexit eh, whatever next? The commoners having their say?

Detox Danny Thornton

Rubbish is so expensive to get rid of now, I run a waste recycling business in Leeds land fill tax has gone through the roof. We try and keep costs for the public to a minimum but it really is so expensive to move.

We regularly do fly tipping, canal dredging, beauty spot litter picks for no cost. I love Leeds it’s a great city.

If any of you can suggest a litter pick or clearance anywhere in Leeds contact me and I’ll be happy to lend my guys out.

Patrick Jefferson

Where I live there is beautiful countryside. And every time I drive around there is always fly tipping. And there is no charge to go to the tip. So if they put a charge on we can expect a lot more and then the councils will end up paying hundreds of pounds to clean it up. We already pay council tax. Which has gone up.

Sarah Robson

There’s already a massive increase in the amount of sofas, fridges etc dumped around estates looking an absolute eyesore since 
they brought in the bulky waste charges now there’s just going to be even more dumped that the council will end up having to collect anyway.

Geoff Shillito

People should be encouraged, not penalised, 
for disposing of their rubbish.

How on earth are we to engender respect for our world if this misguided approach to saving the planet is introduced?

Darren Jowsey

Good idea, have a guess where everyone’s tyres and plaster boards are going to end up?

Not the tip, that’s for sure.

Martin J Phillips, Leeds 16

In Saturday’s YEP there was a small article advising that Leeds City Council will start to charge people who bring certain materials to the recycling sites. The article mentioned tyres and a few other materials.

It is only when visiting the website that you realise just how many materials will no longer be free to dispose of. The following will now be charged for: plasterboard, tyres, breeze blocks, bricks, ceramics e.g. sinks, toilets etc, concrete, flagstones, gravel, pottery, rubble, slates, soil, stones, tarmac, tiles and turf.

There is going to be a massive increase in fly-tipping!

Cycle highway ‘valued and used’

Jaimes Lewis Moran, by email

in regards to the comments by Phillip Marsden (‘Money should have been spent on park and rides’, YEP Letters January 16) there’s value in things you can’t measure – human kindness, for instance.

True, the cycle highway isn’t bursting with ‘people on bikes’ but this doesn’t mean it isn’t valued and used daily.

Think of it this way, public transport is becoming so unreliable that you can cycle to town 30-40minutes faster than it takes for buses to arrive (in Seacroft) by just going 8-10mph, plus, you can do weekly shopping on bikes, there’s plenty of cyclists who will testify to this (by using 20-30l pannier bags, trailers and rucksacks – me included). I do agree in regards to his thoughts on park- and-ride schemes – these should be encouraged.

However, more cars on our roads is not a solution. Cycling infrastructure has been long overdue, I suppose you could say the same for people’s over-reliance on motor vehicles too.

The drip, drip, drip of facts

Alan Slomson, by email

Derrick Bond (YEP Letters, January 19) is wrong to talk about the drip, drip, drip of propaganda from Leavers. What there has been, instead, is a drip, drip, drip of facts.

One of these facts is that the Leave vote has led to decline in value of the pound of around 14 per cent. As our imports come to around £500bn a year, we are now paying more than £1bn a week for them. This has shown itself in increased inflation, with prices rising faster than wages.

I ask those who voted to Leave whether they realised that they were voting for a fall in average incomes in real terms? Are they happy with this consequence of their votes?

If you head off along a path and find after a while it is not leading where you wanted to go, it is only sensible to reconsider your decision and consider changing direction.

Delivering a brighter future

Seb Gordon, Rail Delivery Group

THIS year, passengers across the North will benefit from the biggest improvement in the railway timetable for a generation, with extra routes better connecting communities across the region which will, in turn, boost the economy.

Train operators make average margins of about three per cent. For every pound received in fares, 97p goes back into running and improving the railway.

For instance, the Virgin East Coast franchise has paid back to Government 20 per cent more on average than when it was operated under the publicly owned Directly Operated Railways.

Overall, train companies pay more money back to the Government than they receive. And in an independent EU survey of passenger satisfaction, Britain’s rail service was the most highly rated major network.

Nevertheless, we need to change and do better. That’s why last year the partnership railway of the public and private sectors came together to set out a long-term plan to improve the railway.

With improvements like those mentioned above, this plan will secure £85bn of additional economic benefits for the country, boost local communities with better connections, improve journeys and deliver a brighter future for our people.

Get in touch

THE Yorkshire Evening Post wants you to share your views with other readers. Email your letters to [email protected]