Scrapping a £70-a-year garden waste collection charge would cost Barnet Council around £3million, a senior councillor has warned.

Alan Schneiderman, chair of the environment and climate change committee, said ditching the charge, which was introduced in 2020, would probably mean having to make cuts to other council services such as street cleaning or park maintenance. He added that services were “under real pressure because of insufficient funding from central government.”

While in opposition, Labour councillors branded the charge a “Tory garden tax” and voted against its introduction. It came after more than 80% of the 6,500 people who responded to a consultation said they opposed the levy. But Cllr Scheiderman’s comments suggest that after winning control of the council in May, Labour now plans to keep the charge.

The Labour group’s local election manifesto pledged to protect weekly bin collections but made no reference to the garden waste charge. It also promised to encourage an increase in composting, help people recycle and bring back separate food waste collections.

Barnet Friends of the Earth told the Local Democracy Reporting Service its members support free garden waste collections as they encourage residents to compost waste. The group says that charging for collections probably leads to some garden waste ending up in black refuse bins and being incinerated or sent to landfill, adding that it also encourages fly-tipping and bonfires.

Although residents can take garden waste to the Summers Lane Reuse and Recycling Centre in Finchley, Barnet Friends of the Earth says doing so as an alternative to collections is “comparatively inefficient in terms of vehicle mileage and emissions”. The group argues extra council tax paid by larger properties that are more likely to have gardens could cover the cost of collections.

However, some members of the environmental group suggested the fee could be waived only for households who meet certain eco-friendly criteria for the way in which they garden, as this would incentivise residents to act more sustainably and increase biodiversity. Others said home and community composting for garden waste was better for the environment than using the council’s green waste collections, as this would not involve transportation to a composting site.