THE council is on course to achieve its savings target following the introduction of the green waste charge earlier this year, although fewer people than expected have taken up the offer.

From March this year Swindon residents have had to pay a £40 charge to have their green waste collected as the council tightens its budget.

The target was to save £720,000 in the first year and this has been exceeded by about £10,000 already.

Initially, it was thought 16,600 people would need to sign up to register but, due to reduced costs, the savings have been achieved with the 12,600 who have already signed up.

However, since the charge was introduced more than 1,200 cases of fly-tipping have reported, 90 per cent of them green waste.

The majority of these are in the Parks, Walcot and Lawn areas of the town.

The council has a policy of not picking up fly-tipped waste immediately to avoid sending a message that people can avoid the charge by dumping their waste.

It appears to have been justified as there was a 42 per cent surge in reported fly-tipping of in the week it was announced the dumped green waste would be collected.

Council leaders have said they will work with local ward members to address the problem but admit there is no easy solution.

A report set to go before the scrutiny committee next week says: “The challenge of fly tippingis seen across the country and it is recognised that if we act too quickly to collect fly tipping this does not stop people from dumping the waste.

“We want to avoid a situation where people feel permissioned to fly tip because they believe the council will come and collect it anyway.

“We have continued to clear any fly tipping that is causing obstruction or is deemed hazardous but we took the decision not to clear fly tipping that was not causing obstruction or hazardous.

Coun Fay Howard (Liden, Eldene and Park South) said: “We warned when the charge was first introduced that this would be a problem.

“A lot of people in the Parks areas for example are struggling to put food on the table so can’t afford to be paying an extra cost to have their green waste cleared.

“There is no easy answer but something needs to be done because it is not fair for those who are paying the charge to see others not.”