Residents invited to sign up to garden waste service

Harborough District Council is introducing a £40 per bin annual subscription fee for garden waste collections from 4 April 2016 which residents will be able to sign up to.

Those who opt into the subscription will be able to have their garden waste (green) bins emptied fortnightly between the months of April and November 2016, and between March and November after that.

The leaflets, providing more information about the subscription service, will be placed on the black bins of those residents who currently have their garden waste collected.

A public consultation, held last year, showed residents were keen that the fortnightly garden waste service was retained. In line with many neighbouring local authorities, councillors agreed a subscription service should be introduced to ensure garden waste collections could continue and to address a funding gap going forward of £1.4million per year from the loss of income from recycling.

Cllr Phil King, Deputy Leader of the Council, said: "The leaflets will be placed on bins by the collection crews and inform residents about how they can sign up to the garden waste service.  Although it is not a statutory service, I am pleased we are able to continue green bin collections and that those residents who wish to continue to have their garden waste collected will be able to do so."

The leaflet, being distributed over the coming weeks, will also contain information about the paper caddy within the blue-lidded bins, which is no longer being used from April 2016, providing more room in the recycling bin.

You can view more details about the garden waste service, or composting, on the Harborough District Council website at www.harborough.gov.uk/green-bin