Vale Council introduce annual subscription for garden waste

The Vale of Glamorgan Council has announced it will introduce the planned changes to garden waste and refuse collections.

From July 17 the council will no longer collect garden waste for free. Residents who would like to use this service will need to pay an annual subscription fee.

For the remainder of this year the Council will charge a single £20 fee for a fortnightly collection of up to eight bags of garden waste. Or a £30 fee for households who need to use more than eight bags to dispose of their garden waste. Residents will be able to pay online or by telephone from May 31.

There are changes afoot to curb side bin collection (Image: Newsquest)

Explaining the reasons for the changes Cllr Mark Wilson, Cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services and Transport, said the changes were “necessary”.

“These changes to our services are necessary because of the immense pressure on the council’s budget,” said Cllr Wilson.

“We do not have to offer garden waste collections by law, but we would like to continue to offer this service, because we know residents value it, but to do this we need to charge for it.

“Applying this new charge to the service also makes it fairer for residents who don’t produce garden waste, choose to compost at home, or choose not to use the service. It will be paid for by those who use it.

“Many other councils in Wales are making changes to the frequency they collect black bags and introducing charges for garden waste services in order to make savings.”

All households will receive a letter explaining the changes and a new calendar for their refuse collection dates going forward.

New schedule or black bags starts this summer

Earlier this year the council’s Cabinet agreed to move to a three-weekly collection schedule for black bags. This new schedule for collections will begin from July 3.

The amount of refuse households can place out for collection will not change, currently this is one bag per week collected on a fortnightly basis for most households. Going forward the council will collect up to three bags per household every three weeks.

Some exemptions do apply, and these will remain in place. For example, residents can use hygiene caddies for the storage and disposal of nappies and other hygiene waste.

To find out more about these changes and sign-up for the garden waste subscription service please visit www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/recycling.