Last few weeks of free garden waste collections in Northampton before charges kick in for residents across town

Garden waste collections in Northampton will become a chargeable service from Monday, 6 April 2020, with the last free garden waste collections scheduled to take place during the weeks beginning 23 and 30 March.

From today (Tuesday), residents can subscribe to the garden waste collection service thereafter.

Households wishing to continue with their fortnightly garden waste collection will now need to subscribe to the service and pay an annual fee of £42 per brown bin or £42 for 100 sack labels. Sack collections can be booked online as required.

Households with brown bins who sign up to the service will receive a fortnightly garden waste collection, while those using sacks will receive the equivalent of two black sacks collected once a week, across 50 weeks of the year.

Residents with larger gardens can purchase subscriptions for more than one bin or for extra black sack labels.

There were over 2,200 responses to the Borough Council’s survey, which aimed to gauge how many residents would subscribe to the annual garden waste collection service.

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, leader of Northampton Borough Council, said: “Sometimes councils have to make really difficult decisions, but with government funding reducing year on year, we’ve found it increasingly challenging to continue delivering a free service, alongside the other statutory services that we offer.

“Councils are not required by law to provide a garden waste collection service and not everyone uses the service, so by charging an annual fee, we can keep the collections going for those who still wish to have them.

“We are very grateful to everyone who took part in the survey, and it’s encouraging to see that quite a few respondents already home-compost their garden waste, which is good for our environment.

“This charge brings us in line with around 50% of councils nationally which now operate a chargeable garden waste service.”

Each household subscribing to the paid-for-service will receive a sticker with a unique reference number to place on their bin or sacks.

Subscription to the service is not compulsory, and garden waste can also be disposed of at household waste and recycling centres or composted it at home.

Residents can subscribe to the service at any point in the year, however no reduction will be offered for those subscribing part way through the year and early subscription is recommended to ensure minimal disruption.

A two-week break in the January collections is planned as usual, to allow for the free collection of Christmas trees and additional recycling from the festive season.

To subscribing to the service just visit www.northampton.gov.uk/gardenwaste

Anyone not wishing to use the service can either keep their brown bin for storage or arrange for its collection at www.northampton.gov.uk/gardenwaste