Following feedback on the shutdown of the garden waste collection service last winter, Cheshire East Council is undertaking a consultation on the proposed winter shut down for 2014/15.
Last winter the Council suspended the service for 4 months, from 18th November 2013 to 14th March 2014, in a bid to save the authority more than £1m over the next four years. The previous year the Council stopped the fortnightly collection of green bins for a two month period.
A spokesperson for CEC said "Shutting down the garden waste service over the coldest months of the year ensures efficient use of Council resourcesand provides carbon savings in reducing vehicle usage at a time of low participation in the service. The consultation seeks to assess views of residents about the timing of the shutdown, the length of shut down and the preferred method of communication to residents."
Adding "Cheshire East Council learned a lot from the errors which emerged from last year's shut down period. We are keen to get it right for this year for our residents."
The consultation runs until 23rd July 2014 and the survey can also be completed on the Cheshire East Council website or at the library.
Residents who normally purchase additional garden waste bins, will not be invoiced until after the consultation.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
The notion that the council are making "carbon savings" by suspending garden waste collections over winter is utter nonsense. One way or another, garden waste will have to get to the tip and if the council don't collect it, the result will be a huge number of car journeys to our not so local tip.
If CEC "learned a lot from the errors" last time- what did they learn?
Of course CEC does neither reveal that to us nor apologise for that to us.
And if we don't have a full bin, then we don't put it out until it is full.
Chances are the costs would be less than summer months. Oh, I forgot, it's CEC. Going to be more expensive! Silly me......
The communications department at Cheshire East Council also monitor the site for council related news.
Regarding green bins - I had no problem with the green bin not being collected for 4 months but would have wanted to be warned sooner....
IF Cheshire East decides to stop collection it should be for a maximum of 8 weeks beginning mid December.
If you live in Wilmslow you have a 45 min round trip to a tip in Knutsford or Macclesfield - I wonder if there was more fly tipping of garden waste last winter!?!?
and with dead growth still to be cut back. I made numerous trips to the tip, wasting both time and fuel. To say it reduced the "carbon footprint " is a fallacy. There was also fly tipping near me. Did the council take the cost of clearing this up into their supposed cost savings?
Heyho ! must be big dogs creating manual handling problems !!!!!