Dear Sir
Regarding your article “Who Should Pay for Autumn Leaves?.
I agree with Alan Elders however, it is not just Woodham that has this problem and not just a problem with Autumn leaves but other late flowering garden plants. Last year as well as storing Council leaves I cut back my dahlias and begonias for winter storage long after the last garden waste collection. This resulted in a full, not very pleasant smelling, garden bin sitting under my kitchen window for months until the first collection on 17th March. It seemed all participating neighbours did the same thing. It was noticeable that like myself neighbours did not seem to put their bins out again until towards the end of May.
I was pleased that an extra collection was made this year however to reduce the stinking garden bin syndrome I decided to cut back glorious displays of begonias and dahlias just leaving enough leaves to ensure that they were dug up after the frosts had affected them. Being a keen gardener this was a travesty to me. Surely this scheme was set up in part to reduce the amount of waste going into expensive landfill so a realistic look at the dates could further reduce these costs. I emailed the County Council regarding the collection dates and suggested that collections should start at the end of May and finish at the end of November which still entailed sixteen collections that the Council has funding for. I received a letter from the Council today and I think it must be a fairly standard letter as they state,”…when the chargeable scheme was introduced in 2015 the Council aimed to keep the charge as low as possible for residents and funding was guaranteed for 16 collections.”
It is obvious that no one fully read my letter or actually looked at the dates I had put forward as a suggestion and the number of collections entailed? They maintain that they had looked at the previous scheme and identified a tonnage drop off towards the end of October. Have they not consulted their own horticulture department as I have noted that they are yet to replace bedding plants in many areas of the town which would seem to imply that not all plants have died by the end of October! I obviously am not a typical resident as they maintain that “residents typically commence gardening during the Easter holidays”. Easter weekend this year was round the 17th March and next year will be later but still round 16th April. I would be very interested to hear from residents who are out in their winter coats gardening in March or April as this is not a common practice among my neighbours. Spring bulbs typically do not die back until around the middle of May so that is when the spent greenery from them goes in my bin.
This is typically the time that garden centres and other outlets start to sell annual plants, both the flowering varieties and vegetables, so one would have thought that this would be the time that most people started to spend time in the garden. This is also around the time that the Council gardeners start to plant summer bedding plants on roundabouts and other public areas. The letter states, “A consultation regarding the amount of collections, commencement dates etc. for the garden waste scheme will be carried out later in the year which will help us to shape the future scheme.”
It does not say a public consultation so who are they going to be asking? If, like me, you think that collections between the end of May and the end of November would serve your needs better contact the County Council and let them know. Telephone 03000 26 1000.
