New charges for additional garden waste collections in Medway
The new service, which is optional, will cost £40 per year
New charges are set to be introduced for additional weekly garden waste collections.
From June 2, residents in Medway will have to pay a subscription if they have more than one 240L brown wheeled bin or two reusable brown sacks of garden waste for collection.
The new service, which is optional, will cost £40 per year and allow for double the amount of garden waste to be collected each week.
Sign ups for the subscription will be available from May 13 before the service begins the following month via the Medway Council website.
People who pay the extra fee will receive a second bin and a permit attached to show both bins can be collected every week within three weeks.
The subscription is for those who regularly produce more than one bins-worth of garden waste each week; visits to Medway’s household and recycling waste centres to drop off waste remain free of charge for one-off instances.
From June 2, residents who don’t have the additional subscription will only have the standard amount of garden waste collected by the authority’s teams.
Cllr Simon Curry (Lab), Medway Council’s portfolio holder for climate change and strategic regeneration, said: “We are proud of Medway’s fantastic weekly bin collection service, and the fact that we are one of the few places in the country that still offer a free garden waste collection service too.
“This change won’t impact most residents, however, those that do produce more garden waste than average will be able to sign up to this new convenient service.”
Weekly bin collections in Medway have been a regular campaigning topic, with the Labour group winning control of the council by, in part, promising to continue free weekly collections.
Despite the financial difficulties the authority has faced in recent years, the administration has maintained throughout the weekly collections will continue.
The new additional waste collection subscriptions will be available to arrange from May 13 and the service will begin on June 2.