LETTER: Full year charge for bin is unfair

Moved into a property in Horsham at the end of October 2014. Once we had moved into the property we noticed that the brown lidded bin was full to the top.

I contacted the necessary department at the council who confirmed that the property wasn’t registered to have the brown bin emptied. I was then told that if I paid £17, I could have it emptied as a one-off and the bin could be taken away.

I said £17! I then asked what the pro-rata sum would be to have it emptied twice a month on the normal round. I knew that fee was £29 for collections between 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015.

As it was end of October I expected something on the lines of £15. Then once March 2015 arrived I would pay the annual fee of £29. Well! The gentleman apologised and said, you have to pay the full year’s fee, although you are only requiring the service for the last five months of the running year.

I asked, why do you have to pay for a full year, and it’s not worked out for the months left. He said the council won’t work it like that - he then said that he had tried getting this rule changed but the council wouldn’t change.

We had no choice - we couldn’t lift the bin to get in the car to take to the tip - so ended up paying £29! Who makes these decisions - paying for something you are not getting? Would the decision makers be happy to go into a restaurant and pay £29 to eat as much as you like from a buffet, to find that lots of the dishes were missing - but because you were having some of the buffet you still paid £29! I think not.

K. MATTHEWS

Rook Way, Horsham