Nottinghamshire residents will not be charged for taking building waste to tips after a u-turn by the County Council.
The authority had planned to bring in fees for people taking waste including soil, hard core, gravel, bricks and ceramics to its network of recycling centres.
Charges would have been £5 per load for small cars and £10 for vans and estate cars.
But the authority said it had dropped the idea after reading responses from residents to its annual budget consultation.
In a statement, the council said: “We aren’t required by law to accept this type of waste at our recycling centres.
“We estimated the charge would have generated £100,000. This would have gone towards the cost of handling and disposing of the waste.
“Nearly half (49 per cent) of people responding to our budget consultation were opposed to the new charging plans.”
People told us they think the charges are unfair
Councillor David Kirkham, finance committee chairman, said: “The council needs to look carefully at every £1 it spends and decide if it can continue to provide services that it is not legally required to, or, as was being proposed in this case, recoup some of our costs by introducing a charge.
“However, people have told us they think the charges are unfair to members of the public who are carrying out small-scale renovations at their home – a view we sympathise with – so we’ll be recommending that they are not implemented.”
The council is facing a funding shortfall of £125m over the next three years.
Cost-cutting plans are expected to generate savings of around £20.6 million, if they are fully implemented.
This, alongside money from the Government, will reduce the remaining shortfall to £50.2m by 2019-2020.
The council’s 2016-17 annual budget proposals will be discussed at a full council meeting next Thursday, February 25.
