A CHARITY helping homeless people that recently opened a brand-new premises in Builth Wells, has become embroiled in an argument over rubbish collection with the county council.

Helping Our Homeless Wales moved into the Old Scout Hut in Llanelwedd, just outside Builth, in December, and have been supremely busy over the last few months. Open six days a week, they operate a food pantry on the premises and are giving away free food and clothes to local families in need, as well as operating a free laundry service, helping people who are struggling financially and even assisting people with finding accommodation.

But ever since they moved into the premises just before Christmas, they have encountered issues with their rubbish collection.

After paying £150 in council tax and completing forms required to have the paper, plastic and glass recycling bins, as well as a black wheelie bin for household rubbish, delivered, the council has since removed the bins or tried confiscating them off the charity – who have now been told they face a £16 weekly charge for rubbish to be collected.

“I had a call from my team in Builth Wells telling me about issues with the council,” said Steve Morgan, chairman of Helping Our Homeless Wales which is based in south Wales.

“We’re a charity and get donations of all sorts but the local council class us as a private company and we have to pay per week to have our rubbish emptied.

“We’re not a business, we’re not a profit-making organisation, the only money we get is from donations.”

The charity’s recycling was initially collected on a weekly basis but they experienced issues with their three-weekly household rubbish collection. When volunteers probed Powys County Council the charity was told they were associated with a nearby burger van that operates outside the premises and they even had their black wheelie bin for household rubbish taken off them by the council.

“We’ve been quoted £16 per week to have our rubbish taken away,” said local volunteer Faye Hopkins.

“We were told if we sold stuff in the shop, like Oxfam do, then we’d get bags to put rubbish in, but we give stuff away, so we’ve approached another firm.”

That new, private firm is LAS Recycling, based in Lampeter. They’ve quoted Helping Our Homeless Wales £17. “That fee covers all rubbish collection for three weeks and they’ll take all our household rubbish and give us a bigger bin,” said Faye.

“When speaking to Powys we were told we’re associated with the catering van next door, but the man who owns that has been here 11 years and has his own firm collecting his rubbish.

“The council even went so far as to take the household rubbish bin off us and they tried to take our recycling bins too, but we’ve kept hold of them.”

Since the latest contact with the council two weeks ago, Faye says no rubbish has been collected.

A spokesperson for Powys County Council said: “Charities are classed as commercial under the Controlled Waste Regulations 2012.

“Councils are therefore obliged to charge for the collection and disposal of their waste and recycling in line with the Environmental Protection Act. The council is also required to put in place the relevant documentation to show where the waste and recycling has come from and where it is going.

“We apologise for any confusion over the issue. However, we cannot provide individual charities with a free collection service as this would be in breach of the regulations and unfair to other organisations who have arrangements in place.

“We are happy to advise the charity further on their options for waste and recycling collections.”