LAUNCESTON residential tip users will be hit with an annual $4.20 increase over the next eight years after the Launceston City Council yesterday decided to set its fees to ensure full cost recovery.
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The new fee regime will start in 2015 and will charge tip users $88 a tonne of waste with a minimum $10 charge.
This will take disposal rates up 63 per cent at the transfer station, from the current $54 a tonne.
Users will no longer be charged according to vehicle size but the weight of waste, determined by a weighbridge on entry and exit.
Non-commercial tip users are now charged $7.50 for a carload, $13.50 for a single-axle trailer, van or ute, and $23.50 for a double-axle trailer or small truck.
The Launceston tip requires $55 million in capital expenditure over the facility's life time and needs to increase its revenue by $1.8 million a year from its current $5 million annual earning.
Infrastructure services director Harry Galea said tip users were being undercharged for the service, which was being subsidised by the council.
Aldermen unanimously agreed to the increase.
Alderman Hugh McKenzie said that the fee rise ensured a future generation would not have to borrow to meet future tip costs.
The council will spend $2.3 million to build a resale shop and recycling centre that previously had a $600,000 budget.
Aldermen yesterday agreed to transfer $1.9 million from the tip's rehabilitation budget to allow the work.
Launceston City Mission has been nominated to operate the tip shop for a $317,800 annual fee with a $25 a tonne incentive for preferred recycling _ a charge believed to vary annually between $53,000 and $67,000.