Garden waste subscriptions extended free of charge

Residents who have signed up to our garden waste collection are having their subscriptions extended by 1 month free of charge to thank them for their patience.

Recently, challenges with staffing levels and vehicle breakdowns have impacted the reliability of our service, meaning some residents’ collections have been missed. We have taken urgent action to address both these issues.

In most cases, where a collection is missed, we will successfully catch up within days. However, this is not always possible, so in recognition of recent missed collections and residents’ ongoing understanding, we've decided to extend subscriptions by an extra month.

Extra collections at no extra cost

Garden waste collections, which cost £97 a year, take place every fortnight, so each resident who is already signed up will benefit from 2 extra collections at no additional cost.

This will be added automatically, and residents will not need to take any action.

As part of our ongoing modernisation process, we will also launch a number of other initiatives designed to make collections more reliable and to make it easier for missed collections to be tracked.

Fundamental and systematic improvements being made

Councillor Tim Rowkins, Cabinet member for Net Zero and Environmental Services, said: “Unfortunately, in some areas, our collections have not been as reliable as they should have been recently, and I’d like to apologise to residents for the disruption to their service.

“We are working hard to make fundamental and systemic improvements in this area and are confident residents will see real improvements in the coming weeks.

“We are grateful for people’s patience and understanding and, as such, will be extending everyone’s garden waste subscriptions by 1 month as a thank-you.

“As part of our move towards greater transparency, we will also publish an update of those streets we know have been missed on any given day and when they can expect a collection."

Determined to provide high-quality service

Councillor Rowkins added: “This will save the public having to report problems we already know about – and it means we can respond more quickly to make sure missed collections are caught up.

“People rightly expect a high-quality service and that is what we are determined to provide.”

Full details of the range of planned service improvements will be presented to councillors at the Cabinet meeting taking place on Thursday 15 May.