Essex County Council blocks Brentwood wheelie bin plan

Brentwood Council was hoping to end its current weekly black bag collection, and replace it with a weekly service where residents use wheelie bins instead.

Brentwood residents currently leave their bin bags outside their homes each week to be collected, rather than putting it in a wheelie bin that is collected like other areas of the county.

The new service would require 35,000 new wheelie bins supplied to residents across the district.

Chairman of Brentwood Borough Council’s clean and green committee, Councillor David Worsfold, said: “Weekly residual waste collections are a legacy from the days that we used to put all of our rubbish into a metal dustbin. The world has moved on since then and we’ve got to move with it if we really want to do better on recycling.”

Brentwood has the worst recycling rates in Essex, so the new system would be introduced to encourage residents to recycle more often, rather than relying on weekly black bin collections.

A trial was held by the borough council in Ingatestone where around 500 households were chosen as guinea pigs to test a six-month pilot scheme to collect black bin waste every two weeks from a 180-litre wheeled bin.

Paper and card were collected separately in a single use sack fortnightly. Cans and plastics in another separate single-use sacks were also collected fortnightly.

Recycling rates in Brentwood have fallen from a high of 49 per cent more than 10 years ago to a level in 2024/25 of 35 per cent – the lowest average in Essex.

During the trial, recycling rates in Ingatestone increased by around 12pc – delivering an average recycling rate of around 46pc.

The council has said that the increased recycling rate appeared to have been mainly achieved through a reduction in the amount of black bag waste.

Modelling suggests that in addition to Essex County Council’s savings Brentwood Council could make a potential annual saving of around £245,000.

The proposal to change collection systems had been contingent on a grant of £800,000 from Essex County Council (ECC).

ECC has said it could not warrant paying the amount being asked for due to the local government reorganisation plans which will see ECC and Brentwood Borough Council abolished in 2028.

A statement said: “Whilst recognising the proposed service change would support the waste strategy and reduce Essex County Council’s waste treatment costs the return on investment does not meet the required level to enable Essex County Council to support this proposal.

“The Local Government Reorganisation timeline means Essex County Council alongside all other councils will cease to exist from April 2028. With the current budgetary challenges Essex County Council is only able to consider funding requests which provide a return on investment in advance of this dissolution date.”

Brentwood Council say that if ECC funding was secured, a boroughwide consultation seeking the views of residents on a range of potential changes to the waste collection service would have been rolled out.

The matter is set to be discussed at a council meeting on September 7 when a series of cheaper alternatives to increase participation in recycling services could be agreed.

As an interim arrangement the borough council proposes that a waste and recycling improvement plan is developed – including encouraging food recycling, promoting the garden waste collection service.

Concerns have been raised that Essex County Council is “wasting” money that could be used for this scheme on an incinerator in Rivenhall, near Witham. It is estimated that Essex County Council could save around £450,000 through the diversion of tonnage from the residual waste stream – which Essex County Council has agreed should go to the incinerator at Rivenhall.

Cllr Worsfold added: “What Essex County Council is doing is essentially putting £450,000 a year into an incinerator. That’s how I see it. That’s why I think they’re blinkered and very shortsighted.”

Councillor Russell Quirk, deputy leader of Essex County Council has hit back and called the Brentwood plans “outrageous” and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

He said: “Brentwood Council under Liberal Democrats and Labour control has seen a catastrophic reduction in household recycling rates and in fact Brentwood is now the worst local authority in Essex, having dropped from 49 per cent to just 35 per cent.

“Brentwood’s administration seems to think that splashing a further £800,000 of Essex taxpayers’ money on plastic wheelie bins will improve their fortunes because it will then enable them to withdraw weekly black bag collections from Brentwood residents.

“As Essex County Council deputy leader I have personally put a stop to their outrageous plans that would deprive Brentwood folk of a proper weekly bin collection. I will not see public funds used to prop up a failing Lib Dem/Labour coalition of chaos.”