Relief is in sight for the gardeners of Felixstowe, Woodbridge and Leiston after East Suffolk council announced it was following the lead of Ipswich and other areas of the county in restoring green waste collections.
The council will restart garden waste collections on May 25 – two months after they were suspended and two weeks after Ipswich, Babergh, and Mid Suffolk are due to start collecting them again.
But the news is set to delight gardeners in the district who were frustrated after hearing that they would still have to collect garden waste while nearby communities would get theirs collected.
James Mallinder, East Suffolk’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “We greatly appreciate the support and understanding that residents have shown following the suspension of our garden waste collection service.
“We said at the time that we would be looking to resume this service as soon as it is safe to do so and we are pleased that the safety criteria have now been met.
“In a large, rural district, with more than 50,000 subscribers, managing collections while implementing social distancing is a considerable challenge. However, we are satisfied that we can deliver the service, while also ensuring that no more than two operatives are in each vehicle cab at any given time.
“Given the complexities of this situation, it is critical that we get this absolutely right and ensure that the service returns reliably. Once again, we would like to thank customers for their patience and support for our crews, and encourage residents to compost or retain their garden waste at home until the service resumes.”
Full details of the restart, including any changes to collection dates and payments or renewals will be confirmed shortly. Subscribers are asked not to call or email the council about their collection at this time – all will be contacted individually in due course to confirm the new arrangements.
Nowhere will householders be more pleased to see the return of the garden waste collections than in the communities on the edge of Ipswich – where gardeners in Kesgrave, Rushmere and Warren Heath face the prospect of seeing their neighbours in the borough having bins emptied while their own compost heaps grow ever larger during the height of the growing season.
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