Hartlepool Borough Council plea to sign up for garden waste collection service as price rises

Charges for emptying brown bins across the Hartlepool Borough Council area were introduced last year as part of plans to tackle budget shortfalls.

Initially touted at £41.50p, the eventual price was eventually reduced to £32 and will rise by £3 to £35 from this month.

Bins will be emptied on a monthly basis from Tuesday, April 23, until November.

But residents will only qualify for all eight monthly collections if they sign up seven days or more before their first due date.

The price will remain at £35 after that.

Kieran Bostock, the council’s assistant director of neighbourhood services, said: “We would like to thank the thousands of people who have already signed up to have their brown bin emptied. The response has been tremendous.

"However, I’m sure there are still others who have yet to subscribe and my message to them would be don’t delay if you want to receive the maximum benefit of the scheme.”

When residents subscribe, they receive a unique sticker for their bin which confirms they have paid.

The sticker must be easily visible on a bin for it to be emptied.

The council says that charging for the service - as many other local authorities do - is fair as it will only be used by those households that choose to subscribe.

It adds that the charge of £35 equates to £4.38 per collection and “still represents value for money compared to other disposal methods”.

Income generated by the charge helps to reduce the cost of running the service.

Residents may also choose to take out up to three additional subscriptions at a cost of £22 per subscription.

Extra one-off charges are levied for the purchase of additional bins alongside the subscription cost.

Last year, around 12,500 households across Hartlepool signed up to the service and as a result more than 2,000 tonnes of garden waste was collected.

This was sent for composting at a local facility, "ensuring it was disposed of sustainably and responsibly”.

Residents can subscribe at www.hartlepool.gov.uk/garden-waste-collections

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