Monmouthshire County Council are currently reviewing the garden waste service.
This year’s garden waste service collection costs have been calculated at £660,000 per annum against income generated of £330,000.
The garden waste collection is not a statutory service and at a time of such extreme financial budget pressures the council cannot afford to continue to subsidise the service to such a level.
It has been identified that switching to a fortnightly wheeled bin service will reduce collection costs and will also have other health and safety and environmental benefits.
As part of the review we launched a public consultation to get residents feedback on the preference between the current reusable bags and wheeled bins and the prices they would be prepared to pay.
The garden waste survey has now closed and we want to thank everyone who took the time to let us know what they want the service to look like in the future.
Here are the results of the survey.
Survey results
We received 6112 responses.
Here are some of the reasons people gave to justify their choice above.
| Reason given for moving to a fortnightly wheeled bin collection | Number of people who gave this reason |
| A wheeled bin will be easier to use | 865 |
| A wheeled bin is better value for Money | 689 |
| I only need a fortnightly collection | 534 |
| A wheeled bin is neater, tidier and doesn’t blow away | 339 |
| A wheeled bin will be easier to move/manage | 291 |
| A wheeled bin will give me better storage for my garden waste | 264 |
| A wheeled bin has a larger capacity | 226 |
| A wheeled bin will be more environmentally friendly | 82 |
| I’m a pensioner and wheeled bin will be easier for me | 16 |
| Total | 3306 |
| Reason given for staying with a weekly bag collection | Number of people who gave this reason |
| I would prefer a weekly collection | 892 |
| I don’t have anywhere to store a bin | 553 |
| Bags are easier to use | 412 |
| Bags are easier to move/manage | 291 |
| I don’t want to pay more than £18 | 254 |
| I have steps that I couldn’t move a bin up or down | 189 |
| The bags are neater and tidier | 81 |
| I don’t need the capacity of a wheeled bin | 54 |
| I live in a terraced house and can move a bin through my house | 53 |
| Bags are more environmentally friendly | 45 |
| I’m a pensioner and bags will be easier for me | 31 |
| Total | 2855 |
We really appreciate the effort residents have put into this process to give us such valuable feedback.
We’d like to take the opportunity to address a few of the queries that came up in the survey responses:
If the decision was made to move to a fortnightly wheeled bin service:
- Customers will be able to purchase multiple bins so capacity will not be limited.
- There will be no delivery charge imposed, the cost of the annual service will include delivery.
- For those members of the public who cannot physically manage a wheeled bin or where they have no storage at the front of their property exceptions will be made and an alternative solution offered.
The results of the survey will be considered by Councillors at a cabinet meeting in October and alongside a number of other factors including cost, environmental impact and health & safety will be taken into account regarding any changes to the future service.