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75.—(1) A local authority may make a charge in respect of the provision of any waste service by, or on behalf of, that authority.
(2) A charge made by a local authority under subsection (1) shall be of such an amount as the authority considers appropriate and shall be payable by and recoverable from the person for whom the service is provided, or, where the service is provided in respect of premises—
(a) in case the premises are not owned by a local authority and comprise more than one dwelling, the owner of the premises, and
(b) in any other case, the occupier of the premises,
and different such charges may be made by such an authority in respect of persons, premises or services of different classes or descriptions or, where the service relates to the collection, recovery or disposal of waste (without prejudice to any other basis for making a charge) in respect of different quantities, volumes or types of waste.
(3) A local authority may, if it is satisfied that it is appropriate so to do on grounds of personal hardship, waive all or portion of a charge made by it under subsection (1).
(4) Where a charge (or portion thereof) is waived under subsection (3), the liability of a person to pay that charge (or portion thereof) and any obligation on the local authority by whom the waiver was made to collect the charge (or portion thereof) shall cease.
(5) (a) An amount payable to a local authority on foot of a charge made under subsection (1) shall be payable either in advance or in such instalments payable on or by such dates as the authority shall determine, and, in default of being paid within two months of becoming payable, may be recovered by the authority as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.
(b) In any proceedings by a local authority pursuant to this subsection a certificate purporting to be signed by an officer of the authority authorised by it for purposes of this subsection and stating any matters relating to the liability of the defendant in the proceedings to pay an amount due on foot of a charge made under this section shall be sufficient evidence of those matters until the contrary is shown.
(c) Such a certificate shall be admitted in evidence in those proceedings without proof of the signature on it, that the signatory was an officer of the authority concerned or that he or she was authorised by it for the purposes of this subsection.
(d) The Minister may make regulations in relation to form and content of the certificate referred to in paragraph (b).
(6) For the avoidance of doubt, subsection (5) authorises a local authority to determine that an amount referred to in that subsection shall be payable in advance of the particular occasion on which a waste service provided by it on a regular basis is provided to a person or in respect of premises and, in particular, that the amount so payable shall be the amount it determines should be payable in respect of each occasion of the service being provided by it.
(7) Where a sum is due to a local authority by a person in respect of a charge made under subsection (1) and, at the same time, another sum is due by that authority to that person, the former sum may be set off against the latter either, as may be appropriate, in whole or in part.
(8) Notwithstanding the provisions of any order made under any other enactment, the making of a charge in respect of the provision of a waste service and any exercise of the power of waiver under subsection (3) shall each be an executive function.
(9) A local authority shall not, by resolution, under
section 140
of the
Local Government Act 2001
give a direction or require any act, matter or thing to be done or effected where the effect of such direction or requirement would be contrary to, or inconsistent with, this section and any such resolution purporting to be passed under the said section 140 which contravenes this subsection shall be void.
(10) (a) The manager of a local authority may make an order prescribing that waste placed for the purposes of its being collected by or on behalf of the local authority shall bear evidence, in such a manner or form as is provided in the order, of the payment of any charge that has been made under this section in respect of the collection of the waste.
(b) In so far as there is any inconsistency between the provisions of an order under this subsection and bye-laws made by the local authority concerned under section 35(1) the provisions of the order shall prevail.
(c) The manager of a local authority may by order amend or revoke an order made by him or her under this subsection (including an order under this paragraph).
(11) In this section—
‘dwelling’ includes a part of any premises let as a separate dwelling, whether or not the person to whom it is let shares with any other person any accommodation, amenity or facility in connection therewith or any other portion of the premises;
‘owner’ means, in relation to a premises, a person, other than a mortgagee not in possession, who, whether in his or her own right or as trustee or agent for any other person, is entitled to receive the rack rent of the premises or, where the premises are not let at a rack rent, would be so entitled if they were so let.”.
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