THE fees levied on local businesses for the collection of trade waste by Scottish Borders Council are to rise by up to 28 per cent over the next two years.

A 15 per cent hike will be implemented on April 1 for the contracted collection of bins, the annual rentals of which will increase by up to 54 per cent.

An additional increase of 13 per cent for contracted collections will be introduced in 2018/19

Also from April 1, the cost of the special sacks provided to trade clients by the council will rocket by 39 per cent.

And the size of these bags will be reduced – from 120 litres to 70 litres.

For an enterprise putting out three sacks of general trade waste for collection, the annual cost will go up by 17 per cent from £104 to £122 in 2017/18.

The raft of increases, agreed on Tuesday by Scottish Borders Council’s executive committee, was criticised by Gordon Henderson, the East of Scotland development manager of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Mr Henderson, a non-voting co-opted member of the committee, said the rises were “terrible” and he questioned their implementation without any assessment of their impact on local businesses.

He took particular issue with the recommendation of SBC’s waste manager Ross Sharp-Dent that the colour of the general waste sacks should be changed every year to ensure “robust control of what is essentially a currency”.

“The requirement for businesses to buy new sacks at prohibitive prices every year, begs the question: what is reasonable and what is profiteering?” said Mr Henderson. “It seems you are holding local businesses to ransom.”

Councillors heard the rises had been recommended in a review of the service – a non-statutory function of the council – by a firm of private consultants.

“The review outlined that the majority of current fees and charges are well below the Scottish local authority average and require amending,” said Councillor David Paterson, executive member for environmental services.

“The proposed fees and charges will ensure the council is making a reasonable charge and recovering its costs.

“A new post of trade waste officer will be created to liaise with customers, minimise costs and ensure regulatory compliance.”

Chief financial officer David Roberston said the trade waste service was currently subsidised by the council to the tune of £1.2m a year. The increases are expected to effect savings of £226,000 over the next two years.