After announcing their plans to charge £70 for garden waste collections in final draft of the 2025/26 budget, London Borough of Hillingdon ran a “consultation” where they asked for residents’ views on the charge. The consultation results have been published, considered by Councillor Eddie Lavery, and the £70 charge has been confirmed as going ahead.
The final ‘free’ collection of garden waste will be made in Ruislip and Ruislip Manor on Monday 30 June and Tuesday 1 July, with the subscription-based collections beginning on 4th July, and therefore affecting Ruislip’s and Ruislip Manor’s collection dates from 7 July onwards.
Residents will be informed of the need to subscribe to the service via the Council’s website, a borough-wide leaflet drop, social media platforms, and advertising on public boards across the Borough and within Council buildings, such as libraries and leisure centres. Registration is already open, and remains open until the end of the year. Collections will continue to be weekly through the summer and autumn, reverting to fortnightly over winter.
It remains to be seen how both Christmas trees’ collection and leaf-fall from trees will be handled: we have already been asked if residents will be required to pay when the old garden waste they usually have is from the leaves of trees outside their own property – we’ll find out, and update this page.
What are the alternatives?
If you don’t wish to subscribe to the paid-collection service, you could of course compost your garden waste. The council also stress that taking garden waste to the dump in Harefield is still free – though this does require that you have your own car, and of course promotes private car ownership and additional mileage – things that the council usually aims to discourage.
In the 8242 replies to the consultation:
- 407 people said that they’ll flytip it instead
- 1018 people said they’ll burn their garden waste
- 2100 said they’d drive it to the dump to avoid the charge, and
- 2147 that they’ll put it in general waste
None of those alternatives are ideal – some are horrific and others would be expensive.
The consultation highlighted alternatives that residents expressed concern about, namely:
- Increased fly-tipping
- Increased air-pollution related to burning waste and car journeys to recycling centres
- More households may opt to pave their gardens
- Increase in poorly managed private gardens
- Rising household costs.
Could introducing the charge for garden waste end up costing the council more money?
As the consultation report says: “The cost to dispose of garden waste is £40 per tonne, compared to £146 per tonne for general waste. Therefore, it is a risk that if garden waste is disposed of within the general waste this will impact the ability to maximise savings outlined within this proposal.” They have clearly considered what people might do in order to avoid paying the subscription – and without care, it could cost the council significantly more.
It was costing the council £40 per tonne to deal with garden waste. If it went into general waste bags instead, it’d cost them £146 per tonne instead. Clearly, the council cannot afford that. The report goes on to explain that “A waste collection authority may determine the way in which households present their waste for collection. Hillingdon has determined under its waste collection policy that Garden Waste is not accepted within black bag waste. Any black bags which contain garden waste will not be collected”
So black bags that are suspected to contain garden waste will get a sticker put on them, and won’t be collected: “To ensure that this is effectively communicated, upon introduction of the charge, a sticker notifying the household of this will be applied to any black bags which contain Garden Waste or other items which are not accepted.”
It remains to be seen what would happen uncollected, stickered black general waste bags, but both we and the council must hope that there are not many of them, and that behaviours change.
How many people will subscribe?
In their answers to the consultation, 17% of people said that they’d subscribe. The national subscription rate in other local authority areas varies between 10-45%, and here, LBH expects it to be more like 30% because Hillingdon “is one of the greenest boroughs in London, with one of the highest proportions of private and communal gardens“.
How will it work?
As to how it will actually function: “Once subscribed, properties will be issued with three subscription tags to be attached to their current garden waste sacks in order to identify that they have subscribed. Properties with larger gardens can request an additional three tags. Residents will be encouraged to write their property details onto each identification tag. Subscribing properties will be identified to the collection teams via the existing in-cab software”
So we can actually still have six bags (because everyone gets three tags, but you can ask for another three if you have a ‘larger garden’). In theory the driver of the collection van will be able to see which house has paid, but if that system genuinely worked, they’d not need the tags.
Who filled in the consultation?
Over 8000 people completed the consultation. We might give ourselves a pat on the back for our contribution from Ruislip and Ruislip Manor… Ruislip sent in more responses than any other ward, and Ruislip Manor sent in more than any other smaller two-councillor ward.
Was the consultation worthwhile?
The report notes that residents had concerns and complaints – notably that they:
- Believed the questions were leading
- Felt unable to directly object to the charge
- Dissatisfied with the lack of ability to submit additional comments
Those issues don’t seem to be addressed, though Ruislip Residents’ Association have tried to engage with the Customer Engagement team at the council in the past, with our own concerns on their consultations processes. We will continue to pursue this, alongside other residents’ associations across the borough.
The report says that the council’s consultations “must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage” and we question if this condition was truly met, when the £70-per-subscribing-household figures were part of the budget passed in February, with the consultation running only in March and the decision being formalised this month.
The report says that “the product of the consultation must be conscientiously taken into account in finalising any decision” which of course Councillor Lavery can say that he did, even without deciding along with the sentiments expressed in the consultation. We must remember that it was a consultation and not a referendum, but we nevertheless believe that consultations could, and should, be run better.
Read the consultation results document
While the Hillingdon mailshot and website announce the subscription service and promote how to register for it, the actual results of the consultation are less easy to find. You can download a copy of the Garden Waste consultation report here – there are 25 pages of information and analysis.
Comments are closed.