Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Wiltshire Council wants to charge you for garden waste collections.

In west Wiltshire these have always been free since being introduced by the old West Wiltshire District Council about ten years ago.

WC is now doing one of its infamous so-called ‘consultations’, offering three options as below.

As ever, WC tries to tilt the playing field towards the result it hopes to get by having two non-charging options.

To me it seems reasonable to suspend green waste collections over the winter, so it would seem sensible to support the three-month break. A strong vote for this option would at least embarass the Conservative administration and give opposition councillors a case to campaign to keep the collection free for the other nine months of the year.

To get to the consultation simply click here.

Below is a shortened version of the WC press release.

Garden waste is currently collected at the kerbside every fortnight.

People will be asked to choose which of these three options best meet their needs:

•·A three month suspension of the kerbside garden waste service with no collections taking place in December, January and February.

•·A five month suspension of the kerbside garden waste service with no collections taking place in November, December, January, February and March.

•·To introduce a chargeable kerbside garden waste collection service instead of the current service at a price of £35 per bin per year.

Currently, only 10 percent of green waste is collected between December and February, and 25 percent is collected between November and March.

People are reminded that the household recycling centres in Wiltshire still accept garden waste, and the council will continue to provide subsidised compost bins which can compost your garden waste and food waste at home. These can be ordered at www.wiltshire.gov.uk or by calling Great Green Systems on 0800 7312572.