Maldon District Council's decision to increase green waste recycling charges by 25 per cent has been slammed as "immoral taxation" by one of its own members.

At a meeting on December 14, Maldon District Council unveiled its revised fees and charges schedule for 2024/25 as part of its annual review. Green bin recycling charges were highlighted as increasing from £56 to £70 per annum, in line with the approximate 10 per cent rise in inflation.

With figures provided to LDRS, Cllr Adrian Fluker (Ind., Southminster) said that roughly half of all households in the Maldon district subscribe to the council's green wheelie bin service at the current cost of £56 per year, which generates an income of approximately £768,488.

The cost to the council of running the service, Cllr Fluker said, is around £400,000, meaning that a surplus of roughly £370,000 is currently achieved. If the number of subscribing households was to remain at £768,488 once the new £70 per year charge is implemented, this surplus would rise dramatically to £560,000.

Addressing those present at the December 14 meeting, Cllr Fluker said: "The Garden Waste service is already providing a massive surplus of cash, so to increase the green bin fee by an inflation busting 25% is no more than an immoral taxation on recycling.

"One argument put forward to justify the increase was that we were cheaper than other councils and provided a better service and that even though we were making a massive profit we should still increase the current charge by 25%.

"In reality, it is no more than the council grabbing money through a green tax levy and then using it to prop up its general finances… The council needs to stop increasing fees disproportionally and start making significant savings through efficiencies, otherwise subscribers to the green garden waste service and all our other customers will soon be paying their fees and charges to a new local authority based outside of the area."

Cllr Fluker went on to say that the fee increase had left many residents unhappy, and that his email inbox was "jammed full of complaints", with many questioning cancelling their green wheelie bin subscriptions and instead resorting to putting their garden recycling in the same bin as their household waste.

He called upon residents to join him in a self-devised campaign called 'Lid them know you're not happy' in order to try to convince the council to backtrack on adopting the new charge, during which Cllr Fluker advised they should leave the lids of their green garden waste bins open on collection days "until this crazy anti-recycling decision is reversed".