Businesses lose fight to keep trade waste collection service in North Devon

Businesses in North Devon have lost their campaign to save a council-run trade and recycling service continuing in its current form.

They called ‘a compromise’ proposed by North Devon Council’s leader David Clayton, which involves collecting waste from small scale holiday businesses, charities and Airbnbs on domestic rounds ‘a half-baked attempt at a democratic solution’.

Following a heated two-hour extraordinary meeting at North Devon Council’s headquarters at Brynsworthy Environment Centre last night (Thursday, January 29), a proposal to ask the authority’s strategy and resources committee to review its decision to scrap the 20-year service was lost by 19 votes to 16.

The council says it cannot continue to run a loss-making service that is not statutory and being subsidised by taxpayers.

READ MORE: North Devon Council sets date for big change to trade waste service

Losses annually of around £67,000 were due to rise to £200,000 next year as an old vehicle needed to be replaced.

Some 1,600 people signed a petition to force an extraordinary meeting after the council only consulted one per cent of the 1,800 businesses who would be affected.

Councillor Robin Milton called it “a case study in how not to go about a decision making process.”

Many traders said they would be happy to pay a 25% increase on their waste collection charges so the council could break even on the service but were not given the option.

They were complimentary about the service and the support and advice they received from the council when there were any issues, but said it had not been run very well commercially.

Olly Seymour, the owner of SQ Bar and Restaurant in Braunton who had driven the petition, said at the meeting that invoices were ‘sporadic and not accurate’ and there needed to be a better accounting system.

He said the withdrawal of the service was ‘highly concerning’ and there was an ‘overwhelming willingness’ of users to absorb any price increase to see it retained.

Above: Braunton restaurant and bar owner Olly Seymour speaking at the North Devon Council meeting on waste. Credit: Alison Stephenson

Local enterprises were facing many challenges and urgently needed stability and support, Mr Seymour said.

Businesses faced between a 70 and 80% rise in charges by going to alternative private providers and rural companies were struggling to find anyone at all to take their waste and recycling.

Mr Seymour said it would cost an extra £20,000 to his family’s three hospitality businesses in Braunton, which made the difference between taking on additional staff or not.

He also raised concerns over a potential increase in fly-tipping and job losses from the council’s waste department.

David Hughes, who runs Watermouth Valley Camping Park in Ilfracombe called the service from North Devon ‘first class, punctual, efficient and courteous’ both from the collection teams and staff at the office.

He said it had played a part in his business being awarded best campsite in UK in 2023 and 2025 and he would be ‘prepared to pay more to make the service viable’.

READ MORE: Extraordinary council meeting called over North Devon trade waste petition

But Cllr Peter Leaver said North Devon Council was not a business and could one operate in the same way as one.

He said: “We always have to think about our responsibility to our council taxpayers and our other duties as a council and we are not in a position where we can take a risk as a private business might do on something actually paying for itself in a year or two.

“I think that would be an irresponsible decision for us to take as a council.”

Cllr Pru Maskell proposed the service continue for 12 months and be reviewed, but Cllr Leaver said the authority would be tied into a five year leasing agreement on a new vehicle and would be committed for that time, losing money each year.

The meeting heard that less than 35% of the businesses in North Devon were served by the council’s waste and recycling service and recently another 20 businesses had cancelled.

Council leader David Clayton said the council was unable to take food waste and with new regulations coming in, many businesses were looking at what companies would provide waste, recycling and food collections in one hit.

He said the decision to end the service was a ‘very difficult one but the right one’ as it was not ‘financially sustainable’.

He said to keep it going would be ‘kicking the can down the road’.

North Devon was one of only two districts in Devon that would receive a real term cut of more than 10% this year in government funding and it was within that context that it had to consider which of its non statutory services were best value for what was a ‘dwindling budget’.

Cllr Clayton added: “I do not think that continuing to ask our taxpayer to subsidise trade waste and recycling to up to 200,000 a year is good value for money.”

He said there was ‘room for compromise’ in that waste from small scale holiday accommodation, Airbnbs, charities and some small businesses could be collected on domestic rounds under something called ‘schedule 2 waste’.

About half of customers qualified for this including schools and 80% of those already had waste collected on domestic rounds.

The council’s strategy and resources committee will consider this at a meeting on Monday (February 2) after it was supported by the full council along with an amendment to consider keeping trade waste only for all customers.

My Seymour said after the meeting: “It’s a half-hearted attempt at a democratic solution which is very disappointing.

“It has been a poor democratic process.”