Garden waste collections will restart across Havering from Monday 27 April.
The service was suspended as the Council and contractors SERCO had to take the difficult decision to prioritise the kerbside waste and recycling collections due to staff shortages around Covid 19.
The garden waste service which residents subscribe to, will now resume for fortnightly collections once again, where staff resources allow us to do so.
The Council will refund those residents who had already renewed their subscription for 2020-21, for the two garden waste collections that were missed at the beginning of April 2020.
Information on that and for those residents who need to renew, is available on our website.
Councillor Damian White, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“I am pleased to be able to bring the garden waste service back from Monday. We know that this service is important to our residents who have contacted us and I have been working with our officers and contractors to get it back up and running as soon as possible.
“This is alongside the weekly waste collections which we have continued to sustain throughout the Covid 19 crisis – and I know that both are very important to our residents.
“A huge thank you to all staff who have kept our waste and recycling service going during this time.
“I would like to encourage residents to continue or to think about composting as much as they can to limit the amount of garden waste that will need to be collected, so that we can continue to offer the best possible service at this time."
Garden waste service resumes on Monday 27 April 2020
Garden waste will be collected every fortnight from 27 April subject to resource availability.
The service was suspended because of the impact of Covid 19 on contractor staff numbers. Any remaining resource was put into maintaining your weekly waste and recycling collections as a priority.
Subscription refunds
We are looking into providing refunds for those of you who have already renewed your subscription at the £55 price and will write to you to explain the refund process.
During the suspension of the service, there were two missed garden waste collections so the amount payable to those of you who renewed at the £55 price is £4.40.
Subscribing and renewing
The renewal system is back up and running so you can renew, subscribe, change or cancel your contract.
The subscription rate for renewing and for new subscribers for 2020/21 will be £50.60.
Collecting your bins
Please check our website to see if collections are running behind. That continues to be a possibility with changing numbers of staff on rounds.
The service will resume on the usual system of week one and week two customers so there won't be a collection in the first week (27 April to 3 May) for everybody.
Monday 27 April is week one so only customers who are allocated week one collections will get their collection. Week two customers will receive their collection in the week starting 4 May.
Please refer to your calendar for information on your allocated collection week.
If you have renewed but not yet got your 2020/21 sticker we will still collect your bin.
If you are already a subscriber but have not yet renewed, we will still pick up your garden waste in your green bin displaying last year’s sticker until the end of the renewal period.
Putting extra garden waste out
We are aware that some waste will have built up during the suspension period.
As per our usual practice, we will only be collecting garden waste from your container. This will help to ensure that the crews can get round to all customers as scheduled.
Any surplus garden waste that you have generated while the service was suspended must be stored and then put back in your container for the next collection.
Alternatively, if you haven’t already given it a go, home composting is a great way to make use of your garden waste, turning it back into compost for the garden.
Struggling to store the garden waste? What you can do
Perhaps consider a home compost bin. We offer heavily subsidised compost bins with a free caddy for just £4 (the price doesn’t include delivery).
For information go to www.getcomposting.com or call 0844 5714444.
If this is not an option, then perhaps pile it into a corner of the garden, making your own compost heap. There is lots of support on our composting page.
When our usual business practices resume, we will be able to offer free composting workshops again.
Garden waste sack collections and renewals
The compostable garden waste sacks are being collected as well so please leave them on the boundary of your property by 7am on your allocated collection day and week.
The week starting on 27 April is week one customers. 4 May is week two customers.
Please refer to your calendar for clarification of your allocated week and day.
Renewals have restarted. The price is £55 and is not subject to the refund.
Our other waste services
We are having to adapt and make decisions on services on a day to day basis and priority will always be given to the waste and recycling collections.
For now, we can offer garden waste collections as long as the resources are available.
This could mean that some collections may be slightly delayed if we face further resourcing issues.
Bulky waste collections remain suspended at the current time.