
Decision details
Annualised Garden Waste Subscriptions
Decision Maker: Cabinet
Decision status: Recommendations Approved (subject to call-in)
Is Key decision?: Yes
Is subject to call in?: Yes
Purpose:
To consider changing to a fixed annual subscription period for garden waste collections with the introduction of an annual bin permit to be fixed to residents' bins. Changing to a fixed annual subscription will enable the service to introduce permits on garden bins, making it easier to identify bins which are not paid for and manage the resource needed to empty them.
Decision:
That:
1. A fixed annual subscription period from 1 July every year is introduced.
2. Annual permits are provided to all households subscribing to the service.
3. All existing and new subscriptions are transitioned onto the new arrangements as set out in Appendix 1 of the report at the point of renewal or new subscription.
4. The design of the sticker is agreed in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Enforcement.
Reasons for the decision:
The Council has operated a chargeable garden waste service for over 20 years. The annual subscription covers the provision of a wheeled bin, the collection and transportation costs of the waste. The current charge for a standard 240 litre bin is £48 per year and is reviewed annually. Under the terms and conditions of the service, the number of collections per year is not guaranteed.
The annual subscription period currently runs from the first day of the following month from when the garden bin is ordered. This means that there are 12 possible renewal dates per year, the first of each month.
There are just over 30,000 households subscribing to the garden waste service, meaning on average 2,500 renewals are processed every month. The renewal process involves an email being sent to the resident with a link to the online payment portal. Two subsequent reminders are emailed to the resident and if payment is not received by the renewal date, the account is cancelled and automatically removed from the contractor’s system.
The garden waste collection crews are provided with a list of addresses from which to pick up each day, based on the active accounts on the contractor’s system. The crew are required to check the address before emptying the bin, however with around 600 bins to collect every day, it is likely that they regularly collect all garden bins presented regardless of whether there is an active account. It is also very difficult for the crew to check named properties, as residents don’t generally put house names on bins.
When a resident decides to cancel their subscription, often if they are moving out of the borough, arrangements will be made to remove the garden bin from the address. Unfortunately, when subscriptions simply lapse due to non-payment, the garden bin is not removed. Previously 3 attempts would be made to recover the bin, however this was labour intensive and costly, usually resulting in failure. The reason for this is that the resident will not leave their bin out for collection and garden bins are often stored in rear gardens or behind fences, making recovery difficult.
Therefore, this poses a significant risk to the service that there are bins being presented and collected that are not being paid for. This also puts a strain on the collection as the resource provided by the contractor is based on the number of registered accounts.
Over the past few years, the garden waste service has struggled to meet the seasonal demand despite sufficient resource based on the number of active subscriptions. This suggests that the number of bins being presented is significantly greater than those being paid for.
Since SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK started operating the waste and recycling contract in March 2024, the completion rate for the garden waste service has fluctuated substantially from 100% to under 50%.
During the first 4 months of the new contract, it is acknowledged that there were significant issues experienced with all services. For the refuse, recycling and food waste collections, these issues, whilst prolonged and frustrating to residents and the Council, were a risk as there were substantial collection day and week changes, new vehicles with different specifications, new technology and changes to collection crews.
However, for garden waste, the vehicle specifications were the same, the crews remained unchanged and whilst there were some changes to collections these were minimal. In addition, unlike under the previous contractor where garden crews have been used to support the refuse and recycling collections, there have been no suspensions to the garden waste service since March 2024. Therefore, the demand on the garden waste service is the primary factor that is affecting performance.
Those customers who have experienced a loss of garden waste service over the past 4 months will continue to be offered extensions on a case-by-case basis. Whilst the garden waste service has been impacted over the past 4 months, many collections were unaffected and of those that were, most were delayed rather than not completed. There is no accurate picture of who lost collections, and of the 30,000 customers, only 2,000 reported missed collections. As a result of these missed collections over 400 customers resubscribed to the service as they were found not to have an active account.
To ensure the service can meet demand going forward and that only those who pay for a subscription receive collections, it is proposed to introduce a fixed annual subscription period which will enable a permit to be attached to the bin. This visual identification will ensure that both residents and collection crews will be aware that there is an active account at the address and that the bin is due to be emptied.
The stickers will be designed to be tamper-proof and will be different colour each year, so they are easily recognisable for the collection crews. They will show the end date of the subscription period and an individual identifier to link to the address. There are several options for the design of the sticker which will be further developed once the proposal is approved. These include parking style permits attached to the lid or tamper-proof luggage style tags attached to the handles. The final design will be approved in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environmental Services and Enforcement.
Although it is anticipated that the provision of the permits will cost around £40,000 per year, it is also projected that a significant number of bins are not paid for and that this additional cost will be recovered through increased income. It is anticipated that the introduction of the permits will eliminate the presentation of non-paid for bins within the first year and therefore it is proposed that the ongoing use of the permits is reviewed every year to determine whether they are still required or whether the changes have been effective at removing unpaid bins from the service.
The transition onto a fixed annual subscription period will take until November 2025, with full implementation by July 2026 and the full details are included in Appendix 1 of the report.
Over the first 12 months of implementation, residents with a renewal date between December and March will be required to renew their subscription until July 2025 at a reduced pro-rata rate i.e. December renewals will be charged for 7 months subscription. Residents with a renewal date between April and July will be required to renew their subscription until July 2026.
The same approach will be taken for all new residents subscribing to the scheme.
By moving to the fixed annual period, it will no longer be possible to offer extensions to the subscription when issues arise due to the contractor’s repeated failure. However, where this is investigated and an unacceptable loss of service is identified, a credit will be provided on the following years subscription.
The matter was considered by the Climate Transition, Corporate and Environmental Services Policy Advisory Committee (CTCES PAC) on Tuesday 1 October 2024 with a recommendation made to approve the introduction of a fixed annual garden waste subscription.
Alternative options considered:
The Council could decide to administer the service as is, with residents able to sign up for a rolling 12 months based on their date of subscription. This spreads the renewals across the year and means it would not be possible to provide an accurate permit system. The Council could decide to accept the risk of unpaid subscriptions and rely on the PDA system which advises the collection crews of active accounts.
The Council could decide to introduce the fixed annual subscription but at a different date in the year. The 1 July has been proposed as it is a peak month for garden waste meaning there is less opportunity for the service to be exploited and for ‘part year’ subscriptions to be made. The 1 July is also the annual review within the Contract for garden subscriptions and therefore linking this date with ensure the Council only pays for active accounts for the whole year.
The Council could also decide to introduce the fixed annual subscription but without the use of a permit. This is not recommended in the first instance as it would not identify the bins for which there is no active subscription. However, if Option 1 is introduced, the permit will identify non-paid for bins and result in subscriptions being taken out or requests for bins to be removed. Therefore, after several years of running successfully, the Council could consider withdrawing the need for a permit and revert to sole use of the PDAs to manage the service.
Contact: Jennifer Stevens, Head of Environmental Services & Public Realm Email: jenniferstevens@maidstone.gov.uk.
Report author: Jennifer Stevens
Publication date: 01/11/2024
Date of decision: 30/10/2024
Decided: 30/10/2024 - Cabinet
Date comes into force if not called in: 08/11/2024
Call-in deadline date: 07/11/2024
Accompanying Documents: