By Leicester Mercury | Posted: 30 April, 2015
More than 4,000 people have signed a petition against scrapping charities' free waste tipping.
Charities LOROS and Age UK Leicester Shire & Rutland started the petition asking Leicestershire County Council to rethink plans to make charities pay to dump rubbish at municipal waste tips in Leicestershire.
If the plans go ahead, it will cost the charities £50,000 per year between them.
As is stands, businesses have to pay to dump rubbish but charities are not charged to use Leicestershire's 14 recycling centres.
Yesterday LOROS' chief executive John Knight and Age UK executive director Tony Donovan presented the petition to the county council.
Mr Knight, said: "This is a significant issue for LOROS, as it would be for any charitable organisation, particularly given the challenging financial times that we are all currently feeling.
"Any additional costs, such as that for waste tipping, risks having a direct impact on the hospice and our ability to provide the necessary care for our terminally ill patients. In fact, £25,000 is the equivalent of providing annual care for three patients at LOROS.
"We hope that the petition we have presented will not only reflect our feelings here at LOROS but that of the thousands of people from Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland who have shown their support by signing it.
"We join with our colleagues in the voluntary sector in urging Leicester County Council to re-think their proposal and find the savings in some other way."
Age UK's Mr Donovan said: "We appreciate that the council has to save money. They think by charging charities they will save £90,000, but £90,000 in the grand scheme of things is not enough."
He said if the council starts charging, they will have to cut services.
"It is a really backward step and there are other things that could be done."
Mr Donovan added that the charity has already taken enough hits from local authorities in the last few years.
"What we are saying is enough is enough."
He added that the petition has only been in the shops for a few weeks but has already received a lot of support from the public.
"We are delighted with the response, we just hope the council will listen."
Phil Crossland, Director for Environment and Transport, said: "We received more than 850 responses to our proposals for waste and recycling sites and payments of recycling and reuse credits to Charities and other organisations. We would like to thank everyone who had their say and welcome the petition that has been presented.
"With significant savings needing to be made across the authority over the next few years it is important that we make changes to how we deliver services, but also that we listen to the views of residents, businesses and other organisations that will be impacted to ensure we can continue to support the people of Leicestershire.
"Officers are now working on a report of the findings from the consultation, these will be presented to Cabinet later in the year for Councillors to assess which proposals should be taken forward."
