Huntingdonshire District Council’s Cabinet Members agreed to introduce a fortnightly garden waste subscription service that will come into effect in April 2024 at a meeting on Thursday 24August.
Cabinet Members approved the new subscription service at a meeting on Tuesday 18 July but the decision was then called-in for a review. A ‘”call-in” is a statutory process which enables a prescribed number of members of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panel to make a request
that a decision that has been made, but not yet implemented, be reconsidered by the person or body making the decision.
An Overview and Scrutiny Joint Panel meeting took place on Thursday 10 August to discuss the call-in before referring the decision back to Cabinet Members with a summary of the deliberations to determine a final recommendation.
Unlike household waste and recycling, there’s no legal requirement to collect garden waste so councils can charge for collections. Rather than remove the service, the council will keep the service for those that need and value it.
The optional service equates to under £5 per month at £57.50 for one garden waste bin to be collected fortnightly for the whole year. The council is also exploring incentives such as early bird offers and residents will also be able to share bins with neighbours.
Cllr Martin Hassall, Executive Councillor for Corporate and Shared Services, said: “Not all properties in Huntingdonshire require a garden waste collection service as they do not have a garden. Introducing a subscription means that the service will only be paid for by those
households that choose to use it. This is similar to bulky waste collections where only households requesting the service have to pay