A new opt-in garden waste service is being made available for North Herts residents starting in May, which will be chargeable at £40 per year.

This week NHDC have been posting letters to residents urging them to sign up to the discretionary service that is currently free.

The last week of the existing mixed food and garden waste collections will be the week commencing May 7, with the new chargeable service kicking in from May 14 for residents who have decided to subscribe to the service.

North Herts constituents will no longer receive the waste collection service if they have not signed up by May 5, but can opt-in at a later date.

NHDC is offering an early bird discount of £5 if you sign up by March 31.

The start of North Herts’ new waste contract with Urbaser will see all households receive a weekly food collection for no additional cost which will be collected in a new brown kerbside caddy, instead of including it with brown bin waste. These caddys will be delivered in April.

The decision to charge for brown bin collections was made by NHDC cabinet members in October of last year, despite 85 per cent of residents voting against the charge in a public consultation.

At the time, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors in North Herts called in the decision for Overview and Scrutiny, with hopes of bringing the decision to full council, however the call-in was unsuccessful.

The district council’s counterpart – East Herts Council, which is in a joint waste collection contract with NHDC – decided against the charge.

NHDC’s executive member for waste & recycling, Councillor Michael Weeks said: “Introducing a charge for the collection of garden waste was not an easy decision, but as we are required to make savings of £4.2 million by 2021/22, we have to consider every possible opportunity to meet this target.

“However, all residents, regardless of whether they sign up to the garden waste service will soon benefit from weekly food waste collections.

“We’ve made the process of opting in as simple as possible. Just visit our website to sign up. The price is reduced if you register before March 31, so I would encourage residents to sign up as soon as possible.”

For more information and to sign up to the service go to north-herts.gov.uk/gardenwaste.