West Moorland District Council urgently needs to save money following ill-advised investments in casinos, wind farms, industrial units, a chip shop, and a rail tunnel under Buckinghamshire.
Councillors had debated cutting black bin collections from every two weeks to every three weeks or even every four weeks. But the savings did not stack up. To balance the books, the council has voted to empty black bins once a year, on April 1st.
‘We are doing this to boost recycling,’ said the Member for Environment and Planning, Ophelia Payne. ‘All households can do better at recycling and this will reduce the need for people to send waste to landfill. We know that nobody can properly separate the cardboard and the plastic from sandwich boxes, but we are asking everyone to try harder.
‘Landfill waste will not smell if householders ensure that food waste is handled correctly. Vacuum cleaner dust does not fly around if you bag it properly. And most modern mattresses can be successfully composted at home.
‘If anyone thinks that they can’t manage on an annual collection, then we recommend storing landfill waste in a pit in your garden. If you manage this correctly, then it will be easy to dig up and put it out for the annual collection – although we must point out that the size of the landfill waste bin will remain at 10 litres. It’s a small sacrifice, and it’s one that the planet will thank you for.
West Moorland District Council’s council tax charge is expected to rise by 17% for 2026/27. This is mainly due to losses on investments, interest charges, and councillors’ expenses.
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