FOI Request - Charity Shops
Request 101002149225
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your local authority:
(1) The Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 for Scotland advise that waste from “from premises occupied by a charity and wholly or mainly used for charitable purposes” is to be counted as household waste, not commercial. With this in mind:
(a) do you accept this kind of waste in the event that a local charity shop were to bring it to one of your council’s sites?
(b) do you levy a charge to dispose of such items of domestic waste in the event that a local charity shop were to bring them to one of your civic amenities sites?
(2) If your answer to (1 b) is yes, please provide details of your charging scheme, including any different rates of charges for different categories of waste (for example WEEE items) and any plans to change your charging policies in the future.
(3) Do you host any charity shops at your civic amenities sites, and if so how many?
(4) How many charity shops are you aware of operating within your local authority area?
(5) Under the system of business rates relief in Scotland, local authorities have discretionary powers to grant additional rate relief of up to 20 per cent to charity shops within their area. To how many of the above charity shops do you:
(a) grant the full 20 per cent rate relief discount,
(b) grant some discretionary rate relief to, but not the full 20 per cent,
(c) not grant any additional discretionary rate relief?
(6) Under what criteria would you grant additional discretionary rate relief to charity shops in your area, and do you have any plans to reform these policies in the future?
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act.
Response 14-05-2019
(1) Any local charity shop within Moray that has a trade waste agreement with us can deposit materials at our sites providing they correctly segregate all the materials correctly to maximise recycling and minimise general waste, the same as we would expect a householder to.
(1)b No, providing all the waste has come from Moray. Problems can arise with charity vans covering Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire.
(2) No current plans to change our services.
(3) We do not host charity shops on any of our sites. We do currently try to divert good quality items to Wastebusters in Forres who operate adjacent to our CA site.
(4) There are 23 charity shops operating within Moray Council area
(5)(a) 22 charity shops receive the full 20% discretionary relief
(5)(b) 0 charity shops receive some but not the full 20% discretionary relief
(5)(c) 1 charity shop does not receive any discretionary relief
(6) At a recent meeting of Moray Council's Policy and Resources Committee, it was decided that from 01/04/2020 the 20% discretionary relief award will be removed and charity shops will no longer be entitled to it.