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Wednesday
01  May

Council urges people to subscribe to green bin scheme

 
17/04/2021 @ 07:41
Garden waste bin users in Newtown need to subscribe to the service as soon as possible or face having green bins taken away.

Not taking away the bins until this month is seen by Powys County Council (PCC) chiefs as a way of “encouraging” people to continue to use the service,

The fortnightly garden waste collections for grass and garden cuttings started up again in March following it’s annual hiatus over the winter months.

This year the charge for the service has gone up by £2.

Subscribers now have to pay £37 a year for a 240 litre wheelie bin or £32 for a 120 litre for the service on top of paying their Council Tax bills.

The details have been made public following questions put to the head of highways, transport and recycling, Matt Perry, by Cllr Gareth Ratcliffe.

Cllr Ratcliffe said: “As we enter our third year of garden waste collection, I have a few questions around this service.

“Overall, it seems to be doing well but I would welcome some data to
understand if it’s working well.”

Mr Perry answered: “No removals have yet taken place.

“We collect from all of the previous year’s subscribers for the first few collection cycles of a new season, even if they have yet to resubscribe, so as to encourage the continued use of the service.

“We will then notify the customers who have yet to pay in April, indicating that if they do not renew we will begin to remove bins.”

During 2018/19, £225,000 was used to buy 10,800 wheelie bins of 240 litres as well as 3, 000 smaller 120litres bins.

Last year a further 2,340 green bins, which each hold 240 litres were bought at a cost of just under £35,000.

Seen as controversial when it started in April 2019,  Garden Waste Banks at 35 community recycling sites in the Powys were closed .

One of the factors behind the decision, claimed PCC is that the waste banks, have been abused by fly-tippers and commercial gardeners.

Mr Perry added: “It is important to note that whilst we are working to make the service cost neutral to the authority, savings have been made due to the removal of the garden waste banks for which no income was received along with the regular need to deal with the contamination.”

The number of subscribers is less than 2020, but the figures are not complete yet, and are up to March 29.

For more details visit https://en.powys.gov.uk/gardenwaste

How many people signed up to the scheme each year?

2019 – 8969
2020 – 11639
2021 – 10974
Subscription renewal figures :

2020 – 8431
2021 – 9698
Annual Costs

2019 – £182,270
2020 – £96,146 (not confirmed yet).

 

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service