Holiday Home Owners Must Sign Up To Pay For Refuse Collections

7th March 2013

Council targets Sutherland and Inverness-shire holiday homes avoiding waste collection services payment.

In February this year The Highland Council wrote to the owners of around 600 non-domestic rated (NDR) holiday home properties in all the Inverness and Sutherland areas advising them of their legal obligations under the Environmental Protection Act and associated Duty of Care Regulations to have in place a waste collection contract for dealing with the waste generated from their businesses. The letter advised that if there was no response by early March then the collection service would cease.

A similar exercise was carried out last year, when the Council contacted the owners of such properties in all other areas of the Highlands.

So far 130 owners have responded to the letter, with 70 taking out refuse and recycling collection contracts. From the beginning of April the Council will stop providing a service to those properties where no response has been received. Stickers with the text “‘The Highland Council has not emptied your bin because our records show you do not have a current commercial waste collection contract with us - no contract, no uplift” will be attached to any bins presented for collection that do not have a current collection contract in place.

All non-domestic rated premises are required to pay for their waste collection service and to have in place what is known as a “waste transfer note” specifying what waste they produce; which registered waste carrier collects that waste and which licensed waste disposal / treatment facility is used for the disposal/treatment of the waste.

Failure to have this documentation in place is a breach of the Regulations.

The Council on its part has a duty to have such documentation in place if it is collecting commercial waste from any premise. It is also tasked with recovering the costs of any commercial waste collection service that it provides.

The same action will be taken in future for any commercial businesses throughout the Highlands who are found to be illegally obtaining a collection service from the Council or are illegally disposing of their commercial waste in the litter bins or at the Recycling Centres.