Recycling, household rubbish and garden waste subscription collection policies

For some time, the council has charged residents for the delivery of household rubbish bins which replace those that have been lost or stolen by being left out on the pavement. This policy was introduced to encourage residents to be responsible with the containers the council supplies. All containers remain the property of the council, and they are issued to residents on the basis that residents use them properly and keep them safe between collections.

In line with the best practice elsewhere, we now charge residents for the delivery of all replacement containers when bins are reported lost or stolen. This is done for two main reasons:

• residents look after the containers better, and keep them off the streets between collections in order to avoid the replacement costs. This promotes the tidier streets which are so important to our residents

• the cost of replacement containers is borne unfairly by all residents unless the charge is directed towards those who leave containers out carelessly, where they cause nuisance and obstruction

We encourage residents to mark containers with the first line of their address, not their own name, in order to make them easier to identify and reclaim on collection day.