‘I paid £59 fee but the council missed bin collections – now I want a refund’
A Stockport man has asked for a partial refund from the council for missed bin collections after he paid £59 for a garden waste permit.
Michael Baker said he left his green bin outside his home on Woodstock Crescent in Woodley on May 11 ahead of his expected collection the following morning.
Despite having his garden waste permit displayed on the bin, collection crews did not clear the rubbish.
Michael contacted the council who told him to put the bin back out so it could be emptied within 48 hours, but he says it was missed again.
The resident made a complaint to the council on May 15, telling them he had not received the service he paid for.
The 40-year-old works as a junior consultant in healthcare but is also a carer for his partner who has physical disabilities.
Michael says council agents told him that he had not put his bin out for recollection – but he had timestamped CCTV images showing he had.
His green bin collection was missed again the following week on May 19, although recollection did take place within 48 hours.
After his complaint on May 15, Michael contacted the council again on May 27 and June 4 to ask for an update on what was happening, but says he didn't get a response until June 16 when a member of the waste team wrote to apologise for the issues.
However, he's still been left without a refund.
Adding to frustrations, Michael says his green bin is mostly filled with leaves falling from trees hanging over his back garden, which he believes are owned by the council.
"They've introduced this new licence [garden waste permit] and people are paying for it, but they just don't seem to have any process to deal with these issues," Michael said.
"Me and my partner don't drive so we can't go to the tip. People will just start fly-tipping if they have these sorts of issues.
"You can understand missing one collection and them confusing the roads, but why do they not have some corporate governance in place for this?
"They sold me this licence and it doesn't work, so how do I get my money back for that? How can they just ignore you and treat you like rubbish? That's the frustrating thing."
A Stockport council spokesperson said: "We understand how frustrating a missed collection can be, and we're sorry when things don't go to plan.
"With millions of bins collected across Stockport each year, the vast majority are picked up without issue – but occasionally, things do go wrong.
"Our new garden waste service gives us greater flexibility to put things right quickly, including scheduling recollections where needed.
"We monitor performance closely, and current data shows that 99.25 per cent of collections are taking place as expected."
The controversial £59 garden waste charge was brought in by Stockport council this year after concerns about balancing the books.
The council had to make around £26m of savings in total as part of its latest budget.
The council's terms and conditions for the garden waste service states that it will carry out 'a maximum of 48 scheduled garden waste collections per household' during the service year.
Some residents criticised the council and said the garden waste fee could lead to fly-tipping – although senior officers at the town hall said there's no evidence of this in other areas with garden waste charges.
In May, the council said more than 53,000 garden waste permits had been sold.
Permits are valid from March 31 this year to March 31 2026, when a new one is needed to continue garden waste collections in green bins.
Stockport council leader Mark Roberts recently told the Local Democracy Reporting Service last month that there are no plans to raise the £59 fee next year.
He said: "As far as I'm concerned, that [garden waste] fee isn't changing, we look to keep things as they are – but we're waiting on the government for the spending review."
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