In this year’s Council Budget, it was agreed that a charge of £25 per year would be levied on any household which requires garden waste collected. The brown bin service will be increased from three weekly to fortnightly.
Now it is time to register for the service if you need to, as the new arrangements will start in October.
You will receive a letter with full details of how to sign up for the service until 22 July. You can do so either online or at one of the five local council offices.
This move will save the council around £1.3 million a year.
Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Macinnes, said: “We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to ensure changes to the service are made as smoothly as possible – beginning the process now will give plenty of time for residents to sign up and for us to create new collection routes and calendars.
“We’ll be keeping residents fully informed about how this will affect them, and will be writing to households as well as running an awareness campaign with details on registration and how the service will work.
“By introducing this charge we will be able to increase collections from once every three weeks to once every two weeks, while also saving the Council around £1.3m every year, enabling us to continue to deliver a whole range of essential services to residents.”
Residents will be able to sign up for the service, between 18 June and 22 July, during which time additional web capacity and contact centre resources will be put in place to manage demand, as well as an awareness campaign to highlight changes.
Following 22 July, there will be a period when people will not be able to register while re-routing is carried out. Registration will reopen at intervals throughout the year though households will have to pay the full amount for the year ending October 2019. People who receive Council Tax Reduction (formerly called Council Tax Benefit) will continue to receive the brown bin collections for free, but they will still need to register.
Anyone who chooses not to receive the new garden waste collection service is encouraged to continue to recycle as much as possible by using a compost bin or one of the city’s household waste recycling centres. Unwanted brown bins can also be taken to recycling centres or it can be arranged for the Council to collect them in October. Further advice on composting is available online
Further information can be found on the Council website, including a series of FAQs, which will be updated in the lead-up to the introduction of the new service with any additional questions from the public.
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