Plans to re-introduce two winter green bin collections, and improve recycling collections over Christmas will be discussed on August 10^th by Liberal Democrat Executive Member Cllr Andrew Waller.

In its Emergency Budget the new Lib Dem-Conservative Executive confirmed that it would reverse plans to charge for the first green bin per house – built into the council budget by Labour in February. The Emergency Budget also included provision to return two green bin collections over the winter. These winter collections were scrapped by Labour in April 2013.

A report published today outlines options to either have two additional green waste collections in November or one additional collection in November with one additional collection in January. The paper also includes plans to improve recycling collections by reducing from four weeks to three weeks the maximum time that people would need to wait between collections. Roughly half the city missed one recycling collection during the Christmas period last year and so had to wait 4 weeks between collections.

The report will be considered at a Decision Session on the 10^th August by Cllr Andrew Waller, Executive Member for the Environment. Cllr Waller commented:

“We are responding to residents and helping them to recycle more for the city. Two additional green bin collections over the winter will help people to deal with leaves and woody waste which cannot be easily home composted.

“Residents have been faced with the prospect of putting their garden waste into their grey bins or driving to their nearest Recycling Centre.

“As well as improving the regular green bin collection service, I am also working with officers to look at options to help the recycling efforts of households that do not have a green waste collection. If we are to reach our target to take recycling to over 50% we need a city-wide effort.

“In addition, we are outlining proposals to stop what we saw last Christmas. In almost half the city households were left waiting a month for their recycling to be collected. We need to offer a better basic service to residents than the one they endured under the previous Labour Council.

“The communication plan we are working on engages with residents associations, parish councils and partners to help get the messages out during the autumn.”