A CROSS-PARTY bid to scrap South Ayrshire Council’s controversial £50 brown bin charge has been launched...just days before it's due to come into effect.

Councillors voted through a plan earlier this year to introduce a 'garden waste permit' scheme which would see residents forced to pay, on top of their existing council tax bills, for the collection of garden waste for recycling.

But since that move, taken as part of the local authority's budget plans for 2024-25, which were approved in February, less than a quarter of the households in the area with brown bins have bought a permit.

Of the 40,000 households who have brown bins, 9,715 have permits as of June 3.

The scheme, backed by the ruling administration of Conservative and independent councillors, is due to get under way on July 15.

Unlike household and recycling waste, the uplift of garden waste from brown bins is not a 'statutory function' of any council, and local authorities across Scotland say they have introduced the charge to protect the service.

Now Ayr East councillor Chris Cullen, who was elected as an SNP councillor but now represents the Alba Party, has launched a bid to have the scheme scrapped.

His motion has been backed by Labour group leader, and Kyle ward councillor, Duncan Townson.

However, the motion stops short of calling for the charge to be scrapped immediately, because no budget decisions can be overturned within six months of agreement. 

Instead it asks the council's chief executive, Mike Newall, to bring alternative options for saving cash to the first council meeting after that six-month period is up.

Cllr Cullen's motion, to be considered by councillors at a meeting today (Friday, June 21), states: "Since the passing of the budget the lack of public support for this taxation has been widespread throughout all local media channels and my own inbox. 

“This motion calls for council to request that the chief executive bring forward one or more replacement saving proposals to council in October in order to scrap the previously approved brown bin charges savings proposal going forward.”

While Labour had opposed the introduction of the charge in February, the SNP had accepted the administration’s revenue plans, only offering a capital programme alternative.

At the budget meeting former Labour group leader, Cllr Brian McGinley, had described the charge as ‘a disgrace’. 

He said: “The brown bins are counter intuitive. It won’t work and you will end up coming back, having to fund some solutions because people are not recycling their garden waste any more.”