The regional governor of Smolyan, Zahari Sirakov, has returned for reconsideration a decision by the Nedelino Municipal Council approving the town’s 2026 waste management plan. The decision was adopted on 26 March, and the regional governor’s order confirms the main finding previously reported by “Za Istinata”: the plan was approved after the statutory deadline, while the public consultation procedure was conducted without the full set of required documents.
Under the disputed decision, the Nedelino council approved the plan covering the costs of collecting and transporting household waste and maintaining cleanliness in public areas. The total expenditure was set at €310,509.45.
Approved almost two months late
“Za Istinata” previously highlighted that the plan had been adopted outside the statutory deadline. The regional governor has now officially confirmed that finding in the order returning the decision as unlawful.
Under the applicable legislation, the annual waste management plan must be approved by the municipal council within the deadline set by the Public Finance Act. Where the national budget has not been adopted by 25 December of the previous year, the plan must be approved no later than 15 January.
For 2026, the legislation extending revenue and expenditure arrangements until the adoption of the state budget specifically provided that if municipal councils had not approved their waste management plans by 31 January 2026, the household waste charge would continue to be collected at the previous year’s rate.
In Nedelino, however, the plan was not approved until 26 March – almost two months after the statutory deadline.
Required documents were missing from the public consultation
The regional governor’s order identifies a second serious violation.
The law requires the draft decision, the draft report by the proposer and the waste management plan itself to be published simultaneously on the municipality’s website so that the public can review them.
An official check found that only the draft plan had been published. The required draft decision and draft report were not made available.
As a result, the council’s decision is problematic not only because of the date on which it was adopted, but also because of the way the procedure for public consultation was conducted.
These procedural violations form the legal basis for the regional governor’s decision to return the act for a new review by the municipal council.
A €160,827 gap in the budget
The financial figures in the plan also reveal significant pressure on Nedelino’s budget.
The expected revenue from the household waste charge is just €123,066. A further €26,616.36 is expected from the statutory waste management contributions under the Waste Management Act.
Even after these revenues are taken into account, however, the plan leaves a shortfall of €160,827.09, which must be covered by the municipal budget.
In practice, this means that most of the cost of maintaining cleanliness in the municipality is not being covered by the dedicated household waste charge, but is instead being subsidised from the municipality’s general funds.
