A district council may be increasing the annual subscription price of its garden waste collection service.

People who use Cherwell District Council’s (CDC) garden waste service are being notified of a £3 price rise in 2023, subject to approval at a meeting of the council’s executive on Monday, November 7.

People purchase their annual brown bin licenses from CDC, covering a year’s worth of collections from the start of March to the end of the following February.

Read more: Bicester photographer celebrates two-year anniversary and shares photos

The popular early-bird discount is set to be retained.

Registration opens on December 1 and people will be charged £39 for a single annual subscription licence if they sign up before February 28, 2023.

Anyone who signs up from March 1, 2023, will pay £43.

Both these fees have increased by £3 for a whole year.

Councillor Dan Sames, Portfolio Holder for Cleaner and Greener Communities, said: “We are very grateful to everyone who uses our fortnightly garden waste service.

“We are acutely aware of the pressures on many people’s household budgets at the moment, and it is only very reluctantly that we are introducing this modest £3 price increase.

“Cherwell was the last council in Oxfordshire to introduce a charge for the popular service.

“We want to keep it as affordable as we can for local people, not only to minimise the impact on individual households, but to continue to encourage people to recycle, which is a key environmental goal of ours.

“I hope this only has a minimal impact on our residents while supporting out high-performing waste and recycling services in the face of financial pressures that are beyond our control, such as the increased cost of fuel.

“Two thirds of our current customers signed up with the early bird discount and even with the price rise factored in, this coming year’s £39 discounted price is still £1 cheaper than the standard going rate for the current year.

“The other 33 per cent of customers could still get their licenses for less money than they paid this year if they sign up before the end of February.”

Between March and the end of September, the council collected 6,987 tonnes of garden waste, averaging over 1,000 tonnes a month.

Of around 70,000 households, 40,325 in Cherwell’s area subscribe to the paid garden waste service.

Over 5,219 homes in the district have two or more brown bins.

Additional licenses for households who want to use more than one bin will be priced at £33 for the year from March 1, 2023, again an increase of just £3.

 

Read more from this author

This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1

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