Green bin service goes into hibernation

greenbinwaste

The collection of household garden waste by Cheshire East Council will again be suspended during the winter period to save taxpayers money and because of the seasonal decline in demand.

Following an outcry from local residents over the decision to shut down the garden waste collection service for 4 months last winter, Cheshire East Council has decided to reduce the length of the suspension this winter.

The garden waste service will be suspended for 12 weeks from December 8th and will resume on February 13th, 2015.

Residents are being urged to check the Council's website and online calendar for the date of their last collection in 2014 and the first collection of 2015.

Blue stickers are being attached to bins to make the public aware of the annual suspension of service.

Should any residents need to dispose of green waste during this period, they can use the household-recycling centres around the Borough.

Cheshire East Council Cabinet member for service commissioning Councillor David Topping said: "Suspending the garden waste service over the winter makes complete sense as demand at this time of year is very low and the Council can make much more efficient use of its resources.

"The Council consulted residents about the proposed winter shutdown earlier this year, as we were keen to hear their views about the timing and length of the shutdown and their preferred method of communication.

"Over 2,500 responses were received and the Council has listened carefully to those views when finalising the details of this year's winter suspension. I would like to thank all residents for their co-operation."

The nearest household recycling centres in Congleton, Knutsford and Macclesfield are open seven days a week throughout the year, with the exception of Christmas Day.

Tags:
Cheshire East Council, Garden Waste Collection, Green Bins
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Julian Barlow
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 1:14 pm
Given the councils propensity for wasting huge sums of tax payers money on their various ill conceived schemes whilst simultaneously cutting services, perhaps we could suspend our council tax contributions. I'm sure we could all make much better use of our resources at this time of year.
DELETED ACCOUNT
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 1:18 pm
So my last green bin collection was 24th November. It starts again on 15th Feb. Meanwhile the grass, bushes and trees are still growing. As to going to the Household Recyling Centre - the nearest is Poynton. The new road/pedestrian layout at Poynton is a serious deterrant to taking anything there, and especially not first thing in the morning or after 2.30 in the afternoon because of the backed up traffic. So the window of opportunity is small.
Terry Roeves
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 1:54 pm
To repeat.........
Lyme Green £2M, including the totally censored inquiry report.
BeWilderwood £5M.
Alderley Science Park £6M.
Local Plan £3.7M+
Land adjacent to Alderley Science Park £?? (Won't tell us)

BUT no green bin service and an increasing reliance on Wilmslow Clean Team to remove rubbish.

Huge plots of land and buildings inefficiently used, if at all. This was and is a conservative council persuing centralised controls. Ask anyone who lived in a former communist country. We are being punished for the mistakes of the few.

Give more of the budget to Wilmslow Town Council and we will stand a far better chance of seeing more of our services delivered. Our CEC Cllrs need to work hard on this transfer. £10m before next May is a good start towards decentralisation.
Simon Worthington
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 3:02 pm
Like many others no garden so quite pleased at the reduction in costs. Also remember that the men who drive the green lorries also drive the gritters!!!
Sally Hoare
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 8:08 pm
For once, and rarely, I am in agreement with the council and think this is a good way to save some money. I haven`t put my green bin out for a few weeks now. All my leaves have gone into black bags to make leaf mould and most of the other stuff, including kitchen waste has gone into the compost bin. This time next year I`ll have free compost.
Derek Ferguson
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 8:44 pm
Like Jackie above, we had our last green collection on Monday 24th and many of the trees still have leaves, the winter pruning and cutting back is not finished so once again we'll have make our own arrangements for getting rid of garden rubbish despite paying for such a service. Anyone who has a garden knows that there is still plenty to do up until the end of the year but January less so. Maybe next year.....
Pete Taylor
Wednesday 26th November 2014 at 11:07 pm
@ Terry Roeves: evidently there is also £1.5M for "improvement to access roads" for BeWilderwood!!!

@ Simon Worthington: last year I asked our guys who were "on the black bins" what happened to the chaps on the green bins during the "shut-down". He said that they were short-contract workers and would be laid off. I e-mailed my local CEC Councillor for confirmation, I'm sure his in-box is brimming, as he has yet to respond.The gritting (overtime) is performed by full-time contract staff... but as it all has been spun-off to a Kym Riley-created outfit, who knows what is really going on? Perhaps one of our elected CEC Councillors could enlighten us?

I actually feel slightly sorry for Gary Barton; at least he has had the decency to raise his head, once in a while, above the parapet on this local-interest website, whilst Menlove, Weasley Fitzgerald, Stockton and Whiteley seem still to be living in the 19th century.

Remind us, Lisa, when is the next CEC election?
DELETED ACCOUNT
Thursday 27th November 2014 at 12:16 pm
Terry - you have forgotten in the sums the amount for legal bills and cleaning up after travellers. But increasingly noone is allowed to mention the problems caused to residents on this issue.
Beatrice Turler
Friday 28th November 2014 at 2:50 pm
As others have said, the leaves are still falling and the bushes are still growing. We already compost and recycle whatever we can, and we don't want the garden full of black bags all winter because of a cost-cutting exercise. Nor do we want to take the nearly 20-mile round trip to Knutsford any more often than we can help it (I hadn't even considered Poynton, but it's not much closer, and the "shared space" traffic does make it hazardous). So whoever the residents were that thought a 12-week shutdown was a good idea, it wasn't us.