A COUNCIL decision to charge householders £40 for the collection of bulky waste items is encouraging people to fly-tip, an angry Penparcau resident has claimed.

Nikky Govier said she was shocked when she discovered the cost of the collection had soared from £25 to £40 and has warned that it could lead to people wanting to avoid the charge and just dumping items.

Ms Govier said she had used the service herself to dispose of items she no longer wanted, but said it was made more difficult by the council classing a bed and mattress as separate items, and counting individual chairs separately as amongst the six items that can be collected for the £40 fee.

She said: “I’m a little bit peeved. A bed and mattress are classed as separate items as are dining chairs, so I’ve been left with one dining chair as that was not in the six items.

“The fact it’s gone up from £25 to £40 in one go is a heck of a leap. They’re actively encouraging people to dump furniture. I’m trying to do the right thing, but some people won’t and will just dump things.”

Ms Govier, who lives at Penparcau’s Penybont flats, said she had also struggled in carrying items down from her flat on her own with council collection staff not allowed to go up the stairs to her flat.

She said: “I have to carry it down the stairs myself, as a single woman, and then two big, burly men come and get it from there, but they can’t come up the stairs as they’re not allowed to.”

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