Helen Martin: Garden tax was clearly drawn up on back of fag packet

I back fellow columnist John McLellan's opposition to the garden waste levy that Edinburgh folk are being asked to pay to maintain brown bin collection.

The garden tax policy has not been thought through. Picture: Jane Barlow

In communal bin or collection areas, neighbours could dump their waste in another’s bin bearing a permit.

But this is now a privately paid-for, non-statutory, commercial “business” agreement.

The council is therefore obliged to make sure the service to their “customers” is delivered by providing code locks on bins or somehow protecting against abuse by others.

If they can’t guarantee that, why would anyone pay? Why wouldn’t they demand their money back?

The council also must surely anticipate the problem of garden waste turning up in landfill or recycling bins. It’s a fag-packet policy, scribbled down and not thought through.