Suffolk Coastal taking orders for its new brown bins – costing £43 a year

Carol Poulter, right, cabinet member for the green environment at Suffolk Coastal. Picture: SUFFOLK COASTAL DISTRICT COUNCIL (Image: Archant)

Until now the council has collected garden waste free of charge – but after the county council urged districts to introduce a charge it decided to levy a £43 annual fee.

Now the council is inviting households to apply for the new paid-for service. There are three ways of registering:

Go online at: my.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/MyServices. You will need to register, or login to, your My Eastsuffolk account and then complete the form for garden waste

Call Customer Services on 01394 383789, and choosing option ‘0’.

Or visit Customer Service staff in the Customer Service Centre in Felixstowe and Woodbridge Libraries

And the council is looking for people to sign up as soon as possible.

Cabinet member Carol Poulter said: “Although the new paid-for Garden Waste Scheme doesn’t start until May, we are urging people to sign up now to avoid a last minute rush to join.

“This is a completely voluntary scheme, but people have to opt into the scheme and pay the annual fee. This will not happen automatically. Basically, if you have not joined the scheme by the beginning of May, your garden waste will not be collected by us.”

Subscribers will also be given the option of receiving a larger (240 litre) green bin for their garden waste – included in the £43 fee.

The new, larger green bins are expected to be delivered during the autumn to those residents who request one and have subscribed to the garden waste service.

Suffolk Coastal currently collects about 50,000 tonnes of domestic household waste a year. About one third of this (about 15,000 tonnes) is organic waste.

Meanwhile Suffolk Coastal bin collection teams are still struggling to catch up following last week’s disruption caused by the snow and ice brought in by the “Beast from the East.”

A spokesman for the council said most areas now had had their waste collected – but there were a small number still waiting and they should be sorted out early next week, although it was still a challenge because crews were trying to deal with the backlog while completing ther normal runs.

A spokesman for Suffolk Coastal said: “Any blue or brown bins missed last week are having to go to the next scheduled collection. We would like to apologise for anyone whose collection was missed because of the weather, but we should be back to normal next week.”