Cheshire East Council's Garden Waste Recycling Scheme will open to subscriptions in October for residents who would like to continue having their garden bin collected.
In January 2024, garden waste collections in Cheshire East will become a subscription service.
Residents will need to opt-in to the council's Garden Waste Recycling Scheme to continue using their garden bin to recycle their green waste and will pay an annual subscription fee of £56 for their bin to be collected.
Subscriptions will go live from the week commencing 2 October and the quickest and easiest way to sign up will be via the council's website.
Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council's environment and communities committee, said: "It is now only a few weeks until we launch subscriptions to the Garden Waste Recycling Scheme, and we understand that residents may have questions about how it will work and what to expect if they sign up.
"Our website has been updated with the latest information about the scheme, including details of what to do if a resident wishes to share their subscription with a neighbour.
"Once subscriptions are launched in October, I encourage residents to sign up to the scheme as soon as possible, so that they are ready to go once the service goes live in January and can be sure they will benefit from the full year of collections."
Subscribers to the scheme will have their garden bins emptied as per their usual schedule and will be sent a sticker to attach to their bin, which will have their address and unique subscription reference number on it.
The sticker is designed to fray and tear if it is taken off the bin, so that it cannot be reused by anyone else.
Once subscribed, residents will receive collections from January through to December. As it is a seasonal service, there are no collections between mid-December and mid-January each year.
Cllr Warren added: "If residents do not wish to sign up to the scheme and have their garden waste collected, we encourage them to try composting at home instead.
"It's an excellent and environmentally-friendly way of transforming garden and kitchen waste into a valuable and nutrient rich food for people's gardens, and there are many different things that can be composted.
"Our website has a beginner's guide to composting, as well as lots more information available about reducing household waste.
"If home composting isn't an option, residents who do not sign up to the Garden Waste Recycling Scheme can continue to dispose of their garden waste at the borough's household waste recycling centres."
Residents not wishing to sign up to the scheme do not need to contact the council and should keep their garden bin at their property. Bins will not be taken away by the council as they are assigned to the property and not a person.
Until January 2024, residents should continue to dispose of their waste in the normal way. Collections will continue as normal until then.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
"Crikey" I thought. "Not only are Cheshire East going to charge us to empty the green bin, but you won't even be able to put your grass cuttings into it".
On reading the article it turns out the headline was misleading. The actual message of the article was that if you do not take up Cheshire East's offer to pay to have your green bin emptied, then you must not put grass cuttings (or any garden waste) into your other bins (the black bin or the grey bin). If you do, those bins will not be emptied.
Next time you are at the general election ballot box ask yourself if you agree with Tory austerity cuts of government grants to local authorities, and vote accordingly. It's a sneaky policy by the Tories, as it's not them but the local authorities who get blamed when council tax rises and services decline.
On your way to vote you might be influenced by the appalling state of UK roads these days, following a decade of such year-on-year cuts. You might also reflect on what it is going to cost to put right all those years of under-funding short-termism, compared to what it would have cost to maintain the roads properly in the first place. Spoiler - it's going to cost a heck of a lot more!
Mark Goldsmith and Craig Browne have given figures explaining this in the 'Council Chief Resigns' thread on this website.