Decision details

At Executive meeting in January 2024 Executive approved a Waste Policy and at
full Council in February 2024, as part of the budget, Executive approved the introduction of a garden waste subscription scheme for city.

The garden waste service in York is currently delivered to 66,000 households. A garden waste subscription scheme has been developed and as part of the development of the scheme, the Council has established terms and conditions to outline how the scheme will operate. As a result of this change, it is necessary to update the Waste Policy to reflect the introduction of a garden waste subscription scheme across the city.

The garden waste subscription scheme is being launched in July 2024 with the operational ‘Go Live’ set for Monday 5th August 2024 onwards. The Council will write to the 66,000 households who currently receive the garden waste service and residents will have the opportunity to subscribe to the garden waste subscription scheme if they so wish and pay a subscription fee. There are other options available to residents as they can (i) share a garden subscription with a neighbour (ii) purchase a discounted home composter so they can compost at home or (iii) take garden waste to the household waste recycling centres (HWRC’s), free of charge.

To reflect the introduction of the garden waste subscription service, Waste Services need to seek authorisation for the terms and conditions of the scheme and to amend the Waste Policy to reflect the updated section(s) of the Policy. Only the section(s) that refers to garden waste and bins for garden waste will need to be updated.

It is proposed that these changes are made with effect from Monday 8th July 2024.

As part of the budget for 2024/25, Executive approved the introduction of a garden waste subscription scheme. As the scheme is being implemented part way through the year, the fee (£46.50) has been pro-rata’d for 2024 (therefore, the charge for 2024 has been set at £21). A 50% discount is available for those residents in receipt of Council Tax Support (please note that this does not include single person discount, student discount etc). The 50% discount is also pro-rata’d and for 2024 is set at £10.50.

The service will issue the terms and conditions of the scheme (short version) with the garden waste subscription stickers to residents. The full terms and conditions will be available on the Council’s website and as part of the online subscription process so residents can read them in full.

The service will update the section(s) of the policy that refer to garden waste to reflect the introduction of a garden waste subscription scheme.
Decision: To approve the terms and conditions of the garden waste subscription scheme and the updates to the Waste Policy as detailed above.

Not to introduce a garden waste subscription scheme. This was not agreed as part of the budget process.