Liberal Democrats have today teamed up with other opposition councillors to defeat the SNP/Labour administration and force a rethink on the unpopular garden tax.

Labour and SNP councillors running Edinburgh Council forced through the new annual charge for garden waste collection last year. It came despite huge opposition from local people. Liberal Democrat councillors strongly opposed the introduction of the charge and presented a fully costed budget to scrap the tax.

Latest figures have shown that the volume of garden waste being recycled has fallen significantly since the new charge came into force.

At today’s meeting of the Transport and Environment Committee, Liberal Democrats joined other opposition councillors to beat the SNP and Labour. The cross-party motion demanded that Council officials bring forward specific options that would allow the garden tax to be scrapped from next year.

We believe it is wrong to charge people to recycle. We opposed the garden tax last year and this year and will continue to work to find ways of ending this unpopular charge.