Following its decision in May 2024 and the outcome of a recent public consultation, East Staffordshire Borough Council will be introducing a subscription charge of £40 per bin for the first year for its new subscription based garden waste service. The Council is also able to offer a lengthy ‘early bird’ discount, as the charge will be reduced to £35 per bin for those households who subscribe prior to 31 January 2025.
Furthermore, those households in receipt of an income replacement benefit such as the full rate of Universal Credit, ESA Income related or Pension Credit Guarantee, or another income related benefit that is paid due to no earned income may qualify for 50% discount on this charge.
The free collection service will cease on Friday 20th December 2024, with the new service commencing in late January 2025.
Councillor Dennis Fletcher, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, stated, “This was a difficult decision for the Council and one where we have listened closely to the feedback from the public consultation. The current service costs £1.1 million each year to deliver and unfortunately, due to reductions in central Government core funding of £6.4 million since 2010/11, pressures remain on the budget. This funding will allow the Council to drive forward some of its ambitious plans to improve the environment and to tackle climate change. The early-bird rate we are now offering represents the lowest charge in Staffordshire”.
“In the next few weeks, we will be testing our resident garden waste portal which will handle the subscriptions. This will go live in November enabling households to subscribe to the new service and to benefit from the reduced rate. We will also have a dedicated web page to provide essential information to residents and will be placing tags on their wheelie bins to further advice on the changes and how they may subscribe”.
N.B. This decision is subject to “call-in” by councillors as per the Council’s Constitution and will come in to force upon the expiry of three working days from 11th October 2024 unless a valid call-in is received.