The pause on people being allowed on to the waiting list for the area’s garden waste scheme will continue until March 2026 in a move branded an ’embarrassment’.
South Holland residents have in the past been able to pay extra to have the brown bins which are then collected fortnightly.
But there has been issues with the service and since earlier this year the district council has stopped people being added to the waiting list for the bins.
In a statement to the council last week, portfolio holder for environmental services Jim Astill said: “Through operational testing of these new rounds, issues were identified which means we are unable to open the scheme to new subscribers in 2025.
“The team are working to correct these issues and the updated target date is end of March 2026.”
Coun Paul Barnes, the leader of the largest opposition in the South Holland Independents, says he’s previously been to the depot and spoke to staff about the issue.
“I’m very disappointed to see where we are with that scheme,” he told last week’s council meeting. “I don’t understand why it seems we’ve wasted six months in coming up with a routing scheme internally that doesn’t work.
“It’s going to be another four months and it’s not going anywhere. It’s an embarrassment to the council and to the residents.
“When I last spoke to the depot they told me they had plenty of bins and capacity on the existing routes, so why are we not taking on more residents?
“We’ve lost revenue with selling these bins. This is 18 months and we haven’t put a new green bin out.”
Coun Astill responded that there were about 100 bins not been put out that were a mixture of new and used.
He also denied the work carried out in the last few months had been ‘a waste’ and had cost the council.
“We closed it in February or March when we gave some the opportunity to join the scheme and they did,” he said. “A small number of rounds needed some extra work and that has now been done.
“The software for uploading the routes into the system has now been changed. I was disappointed we’d have to delay, but from my perspective it’s important we get it right.
“We’ve allowed them until the end of quarter one to get that work completed.”
* The meeting was also told that garden waste bin owners would this year have to chop their Christmas trees up into no more than two inch diameter pieces and place them in the bins. Previously those who pay for the scheme could just leave them alongside their waste bins.
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