The campaigning efforts of the Conservative Group at Edinburgh Council has secured agreement in principle for the hated garden waste charge to be scrapped.

Councillor Nick Cook’s amendment to the recent sitting of the Transport & Environment Committee called for the trouble-plagued Garden Tax scheme to be scrapped in principle and replaced with a fortnightly service funded through general council tax - just like other waste collections.

To provide best value for our Council Tax, Nick’s amendment also called for a feasibility study on merging garden and food waste collections, similar to what is done in Conservative-run Perth and Kinross Council.

The victory - secured with the votes of other opposition parties - marks a major milestone in the Conservative Group’s campaign to Bin the Garden Tax and is a big blow for the SNP/Labour coalition running the city council.

With the agreement passed ‘in principle’ Conservatives will continue to work hard to ensure the SNP & Labour uphold the committee decision in the long term.

Commenting, Councillor Nick Cook said:

“The unwanted Garden Tax makes fly-tipping and garden bonfires more likely, as well as increasing the amount of waste going to landfill. This harms our environment and costs taxpayers even more in the long term.”

“With a majority of councillors clearly in favour of binning the garden tax, efforts will continue in the coming weeks to ensure the SNP & Labour do not seek to disregard the democratic process and follow through with scrapping the charge.”