A policy which means households in the south of Aberdeenshire get free wheelie bins – while those in the north have to pay – is set to ditched.
The council’s infrastructure services committee will this week address an inconsistency in the system for replacing old, damaged or lost containers across the region.
In Kincardine and Mearns and South Marr households incur no charges at all.
However in north Aberdeenshire – Buchan, Banff and Buchan, Formartine, Garioch and North Marr – householders must pay £57.80.
Across the region, the local authority provides recycling bins, food caddies and compostable food bags free of charge.
The committee is being asked to back an across-the-board £25 administration fee for new wheelie bins.
Other options on the table are to charge all households the current price of £57.80, to charge the average price of each bin at £58.98 or to supply all bins free of charge.
Head of infrastructure services Stephen Archer, says the preferred option would begin the process of regaining council “ownership” of bins.
In a report he says this would give the council “greater control over future service provision” and would detract homeowners from buying bins from “other sources” – something which can prove problematic for collections.
The council provides about 3,000 bins every year as replacements to old, damaged or lost ones.
Banchory and Mid-Deeside councillor, and the council’s Lib Dem group leader, Karen Clark said: “It seems a sensible approach to have consistency in the policy and make it equitable for everyone across the shire even though people now moving into my ward will pick up a fee.”
Mearns Conservative councillor, George Carr, said: “The system should have been harmonised from the start across the whole of the shire and even against the whole of Scotland – traditionally everybody has been entitled to a bin from the council.”
Aberdeen City Council does not charge for bins.