£50,000 set aside to tackle those who evade bag charge

Some deputies said their parish officials were concerned about an increase in fly-tipping once charges were introduced. The issue is currently often handled by parishes.

The £50,000 figure was revealed by Jennifer Merrett, who said she got the information from waste disposal officials.

She said she did not know how the figure was reached.

‘But I would be very interested to know how they calculated it,’ she said. ‘It is very difficult to predict.’

A States’ Trading Assets spokesman confirmed the figure to the Guernsey Press.

‘Until the new system is introduced, it is impossible to know for certain the extent of the compliance monitoring requirements,’ he said.

‘We have therefore included an allowance of £50,000, and will review that in light of the experience we gain early on.’

Deputy Merrett felt the best way to tackle fly-tipping was to have a high fixed charge and a low bag charge.

‘With a fixed charge, you know what you have to pay,’ she said.‘It minimises the variables.’

St Sampson’s deputy Paul Le Pelley said his parish officials were worried that more rubbish would be burned, buried and fly-tipped.

‘Everyone will pay for that on their various rates,’ he said.

‘But those who have already paid for their collection of waste will pay a second time. They are going to pay for those who could not be bothered or could not afford to pay for it in the first place.’

Deputy Peter Ferbrache said the States was in a messy situation and that this was not where he wanted to be.

‘I would like to see us controlling our own destiny,’ he said.‘But time is short.’

He was confident there would be an increase in fly-tipping.

‘People will fly-tip because they think they will save money,’ he said.

‘We have opened a Pandora’s Box and we don’t know where we will end up. I hope it’s not a disaster.’

Vale deputy Matt Fallaize said he was particularly concerned about large areas such as the Vale Common.

‘There is a risk if there is a risk of increase of fly-tipping, then an area like that would bear the burden,’ he said.

The commons council already has problems removing illegally dumped material and Deputy Fallaize said areas such as this should not be having to bear the cost of disposing of fly-tipping.

St Peter Port North deputy Michelle Le Clerc said the feedback she had received from the recent parish meeting was that parishioners wanted their deputies to vote against all the proposals. But she said she could not do that as Mont Cuet was almost full.

The parish’s big concern was that there could be an increase in fly-tipping.

‘And I think we will see an increase,’ she said.

Deputy Lester Queripel said there was no doubt there would be more fly-tipping and burning when charging came in. He was also concerned about affordability and that some people would not qualify for support.

‘There are people who will fall between the cracks,’ he said.

But Deputies Jeremy Smithies and Chris Green said politicians needed to be careful what they said about fly-tipping.

‘We run the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy,’ Deputy Green said. ‘We need to keep things in proportion.’

Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez said that the fear of fly-tipping was universal in communities where pay-as-you-throw was introduced.

‘The surprising bit was that the data showed that after the implementation of the pay-as-you-throw schemes, there was very little or no rise – in any of the studies I looked at,’ she said.

‘These included studies across Europe and the US.’