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A Midland council has blamed the scorching summer after missing its target for the sale of garden waste collection subcriptions. As part of a fees and charges review for the 2026-27 budget, Warwick District Council plans to raise the price of a green bin permit from £47 to £51 – an increase of more than 8.5 per cent. A report said the council expected to sell 40,000 permits-a-year but had to adjust its figures after falling short by 2,000 customers. The document suggested the decline "reflects local trends and may be due to the unusually dry spring and summer", leading to a drop in next year's projected income of £186,500. READ MORE: £20k reward to identify biker after innocent victim shot outside home The revised target of £1.963 million would still be slightly higher than the £1.88 million the council expects to generate across 2025-26. But councillors questioned the assumptions behind the projections. Scrutiny panel chairman Coun Andrew Milton questioned the assumption that hot weather had reduced the number of permits sold, suggesting that conclusion might not tally with the information available. He said: "We should have information by now on whether we are losing registrations from people with multiple bins who are reducing, or whether it is people going from one to zero." Resources boss Coun Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick) replied: "We had a long conversation at scrutiny about what data was available and what more we could get hold of. We are only a few years in and it is very difficult to disentangle the various reasons why things might be happening." The authority is also exploring the possibility of an extra green bag service which "may help to increase participation in the garden waste scheme". Coun Chilvers acknowledged "they need to be priced and worked in a way to get the incentive right between getting a bag or a bin" and said more information was expected towards the end of the next financial year. Representatives of other parties voiced concerns over pricing, but Coun Chilvers argued the council's ruling Green-Labour coalition was striking the right balance. He said: "None of us came into politics to put up prices but we also recognise that without a price, there just wouldn't be a service. We want to provide a good service and to do it with good financial prudence."
