I WOULD like to respond to the recent article in which Mr Gough from the Halfway Hotel in Cwmbran criticises Torfaen council for introducing charges to remove recycling from his pub. First of all I would like to make it clear that business rates, which are controlled by Welsh Government and not the council, do not cover the removal of waste or recycling. We charge businesses for the removal of general waste as part of our trade service but for many years have extended our kerbside recycling collections to businesses free of charge. This is no longer sustainable and the council agreed to introduce charges for trade recycling collections as part of its 2015/16 budget saving measures. We wrote to all business owners using our services in March this year to advise them of the charges and allow them to make alternative arrangements if they wished to do so. As we didn’t receive a request from Mr Gough to cancel his service, we continued to collect his recycling as usual and invoiced him accordingly. Businesses are not obliged to use the council for their waste and recycling collections, and at a time when we are making significant cuts it is wrong for a commercial business to expect to receive a free service, subsidised by council tax paying residents.

Cllr John Cunningham
Executive member for neighbourhood services 
Torfaen council