Issued by City of York Council
Following a comprehensive review and consultation of City of York Council’s waste services earlier this year, changes to the service will take effect from September.
Less then ten per cent of all households will see significant changes to the day and time that their rubbish and recycling is collected, but the review has contributed towards significant savings of £300,000 in 2013/14.
Whilst making these savings and changes an additional 824 households will benefit from recycling and garden waste collections following a review of waste rounds.
New rubbish and recycling calendars will be sent to households citywide from today (Tuesday 27 August) with new collections to commence from Monday 9 September.
The majority of households (72,000 homes) will continue to receive their normal collections on the same day on a fortnightly basis.
The time of their collection may vary and residents are advised to ensure they present their rubbish and recycling before 7am on the day of their collection.
The aim of the review has been to plan rounds to address the increase in new homes and developments being built across the city and consequent increase in demand for waste and recycling services, whilst delivering savings against the challenging financial situation facing the council.
A key objective has also been to minimise the impact for residents from the changes.
When the last review was carried out in 2005 there were only 70,000 homes in York, but this has now steadily increased to 90,000.
Through the review the council has achieved making collection rounds more manageable and effective as well as having the scope to include future new homes and developments over the next few years.
In conjunction with the round review, the council has introduced a number of additional improvements to the service. The council has invested in new waste and recycling vehicles increasing productivity by five per cent, meaning an additional 750 properties can benefit from kerbside recycling collection rounds.
The new waste vehicles are larger, can hold a much greater volume of waste, reducing the amount of fuel used by 20 per cent.
Further to the introduction of the new rubbish and recycling collections, changes to garden waste will also take effect from 9 September.
Following a consultation in April, the majority of residents supported the decision to introduce an annual subscription charge for additional garden waste and not collect waste during the winter months. Altogether 64.6 per cent of residents were in favour of charging for additional garden waste bins.
As a result of this feedback, a charge of £35 to cover 12-months will come into effect for households with more then one garden waste bin.
No garden waste will be collected during the winter months of November to March (when only 18 per cent of that annual garden waste is collected). This proposal was supported by 71.2 per cent of all residents in the consultation and equally by 61.5 per cent of residents who currently use the winter service and will help make a cost savings of £67,000 per year.
Cllr David Levene, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “We are committed to providing the best possible service to residents and businesses.
“This review has enabled us to address the challenging financial situation facing this service but ensured residents will feel little impact on their day-to-day collection service.
“Only ten per cent of all households across the city will feel significant changes, but as a result of the review we have contributed a huge savings towards the waste services of £300,000 in 2013/14.
“We are also expanding the number of kerbside recycling collections which shows our strong commitment to increasing recycling rates.
“We’ve been open and honest with the public throughout this process and recognise that in order to achieve these savings we needed to listen closely to residents’ views.
“We thank everyone for their input in the consultation which has enabled us to hear what residents wanted before any decisions were made.”
For full details of the changes to rubbish and recycling collections, or if residents would like to subscribe to the garden waste service, please call 01904 551550.
Alternatively, residents can look up their collections by postcode at the council’s website.
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