Council's £60 tariff to deliver wheelie bins is 'squeezing' residents

Wheelie mean .... South Cambridgeshire District Council is charging £60 to deliver the bins to new homes

The Taxpayers' Alliance said South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) had added another layer of taxation by introducing the tariff.

The council said people moving into new homes must pay the delivery charge to receive its refuse service and cannot avoid it by collecting the bins themselves.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Council tax has gone through the roof in recent years, and taxpayers are hard-pressed to pay the bill as it is.

"Slapping extra charges on top of the existing bill is a stealthy and shoddy way of squeezing people for cash.

"It might be fair to charge those who need new bins if everyone else received a tax cut. Instead, tax continues to rise for all."

He added the cost of providing a refuse service to more homes should be covered the increased number of people paying council tax.

The council said the charges were introduced to cover costs.

A spokeswoman said: "South Cambridgeshire is a growth area with a population set to increase by a third by 2016.

"Extra growth means increased costs for SCDC as services for a growing population have to be set up or strengthened before new residents move in."

The spokeswoman said residents could not avoid paying the charge by collecting the bins from the council for "health and safety" reasons.

"We are not able to have people at our depot as there are health and safety implications," she said.

She added only bins issued by the council would be collected.