Forums Forums Wirral Information Wirral Council Wirral Borough council and garden waste.....

I had the unfortunate opportunity to speak to "street scene" A Lady called Marie who told me she didn't have to give me her surname.... OK, fine, I gave her mine as I didn't have anything to hide or my address or my home telephone number.

My enquiry was involving me putting out two grey bins for collection full of garden waste. They rejected my request to get rid of the said items. It was weeds and overgrown small branches from a small back yard.... covered in concrete and I put down industrial strength weed killer to hopefully make sure they don't come back again.... Their reason for rejection was that I haven't signed up to the garden waste.

The notice plastered on my bins read: "Your brown bin has not been emptied today (Its grey, I don't have a brown bin and they know it as they stuck the sticker on a grey bin) as you are not subscribed to the garden waste collection service.... This is an extra chargeable service of £35 per year.... No pay, no waste removal in other words.

Considering that I live in a flat on Park Road East and I was getting rid of weeds that were climbing so high they were affecting my neighbours, I

I can't edit and somehow it posted half way through my typing.... I don't seem to be able to delete the original.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to speak to "street scene" A Lady called Marie who told me she didn't have to give me her surname.... OK, fine, I gave her mine as I didn't have anything to hide or my address or my home telephone number.

My enquiry was involving me putting out two grey bins for collection full of garden waste. They rejected my request to get rid of the said items. It was weeds and overgrown small branches from a small back yard.... covered in concrete and I put down industrial strength weed killer to hopefully make sure they don't come back again.... Their reason for rejection was that I haven't signed up to the garden waste.

The notice plastered on my bins read: "Your brown bin has not been emptied today (Its grey, I don't have a brown bin and they know it as they stuck the sticker on a grey bin) as you are not subscribed to the garden waste collection service.... This is an extra chargeable service of £35 per year.... No pay, no waste removal in other words.

Considering that I live in a flat on Park Road East and I was getting rid of weeds that were climbing so high they were affecting my neighbours, I decided to take some action as my landlord wasn't interested and I like my neighbours.... They are your lovely, typical, down to earth Birkenheaders with no airs or graces.... Just nice people.

This was to be a one off removal of garden waste but according to the council I have to pay extra.... Funny thing is that as I pointed out to "Marie" in the council, being in a flat, there are no legal restrictions on what I put in any bin.... I don't have to recycle by law, yet Marie seems to think that the council can make up the law as it goes along which it can't do according to the law itself.

I was threatened several times that she would cut me off for being "abusive" as she put it and pointed out that the call was being recorded to which I responded that I was glad because she will have proof of my abuse when there really was none. I talked in a calm and frank manner.

What I did gain from her was that apparently I can put a "reasonable" amount of garden waste in my green bin as long as its covered by household waste, so when I pressed her that I could off-load the weeds in my grey bins into the three green bins, she said "I didn't say that." She did really, she just couldn't admit it.... She eventually cut me off because she was on a losing argument and all this coming from a council that see's fit to spend £850K on a fire escape for the town hall.... We need to wake up, we need more common sense and less political correctness.... This Country is crying out for sensible people.

There's my rant over.... I wish you all well for the run up to Christmas and I hope your wishes are met.... Stay safe.

Simples, put it in the green bin and as for covering it with household waste, nonsense! It has already been admitted by Councillors that you are entitled to do this and nothing is said about small amounts or covering it up.

Park Road East? Dump it over the road in the park!

Hehehe Helles. I'd rather go along to the town hall late one night and dump it on their steps.... They would have to clear it up then. I suppose I was making the point that you don't have to pay £35 a year extra for collection of garden waste as you are entitled to use your green bin.... but they didn't say that, nudge,nudge.wink,wink.... but they did.

Or take it to Bidston recycling place.

Yeah, I could do that but some people don't have transport and some people can't afford another £35 to give to a council that squanders nearly a million quid on a staircase.... They could have built a new town hall for that.

The whole bureaucratic nature of our council needs questioning.

Can I put garden waste in the green wheelie bin?

We encourage residents to recycle their garden waste were possible. This can be achieved through the collection service or if you choose not to subscribe you may consider home composting and waste can also be taken to any of the household recycling centres in Wirral.

As a last option, some garden waste can be placed in the green general waste bin. However, the Council’s existing rules on presenting bins for collection will still apply. The Council will review its decision not to ban small quantities of garden waste from the residual waste collection on a regular basis to ensure the waste collection system does not become abused as a result of too much garden waste entering the system. However, a ban may become necessary in the future if waste related problems arise.

Bins must be presented on collection day with the bin lid closed, and no side waste should be presented; additional bagged waste will not be collected.

Should residents not follow these rules their bin will not be emptied.

If you choose to add garden waste to the green general waste bin, it is important that you still have room for your general waste.

The collection crews will also continue to monitor grey recycling bins for contamination (the wrong items placed in the recycling bin). Contaminated bins will not be emptied and the Council will initiate enforcement action on any household that presents grey bins containing any amount of garden waste.
taken from WBC information on garden waste

They not getting £35 off me ither I pay my full council tax as it is.If you notice not alot of brown bins are being put out for collection.So this 35.00 fee will fail.

I hope you're right and it does fail.... The simple fact is you can put garden waste in your green wheelie bin. It would be really funny if everyone in Birkenhead was to fill their bins with such and they refused to take them all.... The bin men actually inspect the contents of your bin.... Its a licence for jobsworths not to do what they are paid for.

They are contracted to the council and not government employee's and even they know that all rubbish is mixed up in the end, "green" is a farce. Our council pay to container up all the mixed rubbish and send it off to India anyway. That is a fact.

Should we have a brown-bin-out-for-collection spotting thread to see which locations thought it a good idea?

Sure.... It would be interesting to see how many people fell for the lie.

No its true,It was in the paper not so long ago that hardly any brown bins were being put out for collections.Some households are saying they dont need them anymore due to this £35.00 charge.

I take your word for it Candyfloss.... I wonder what other bright idea the council will come up with to squeeze some more money out of us. Their golden pension pots need filling every month and the chief executive is on more money than the prime minister.

You couldn't make the stuff up about our corrupt council and their practices.

Maybe I'm the only one here who actually pays for the brown bin (please don't hate me! ) I don't like to give the council anymore money than they already squander, however I really do need mine as I have a lot of garden waste in the summer and soooo many leaves during autumn. I wouldn't know where to put it all if I didn't have my brown bin.

The hassle of getting all of my garden waste to the tip, plus the cost of petrol to me is far more expensive than paying the equivalent of 67p a week.

Now, when you break it down to a weekly amount of 67p it doesn't sound a lot but its extra money you never had to shell out before all this green nonsense took hold. Its up to you if you're happy to pay extra but you shouldn't have to. At one time the council would take a settee or fridge/freezer away for nothing but now you have to pay.... Our council is one of the most greedy and wasteful.... vote anything but lib/lab/con.

How do we vote them out though? Point me in the right direction and I will be happy to put my X on the spot that helps gets them out.
Incidentally, I don't give a rats behind about all of this "going green" nonsense, it's just a service that, at the moment, I am happy to pay for.

Oh, and if the council is so hard up, how are they paying for the renovations that are currently being done to the houses down Tollemache Rd and the surrounding roads. New windows, roofs, rendering etc etc. I assume this is council funded? It must be costing an absolute fortune.

If the bins were collectedevery week it would be better, but it's once a fortnight. Like Elizabeth, I too have a large garden and today have filled two brown bins with leaves, and surprisingly, they weigh heavy.I don't feel any amount of guilt by using them, they are needed here. So my cost is £70 per year, although between now and April, they probably won't be used again, which works out approx. £9 per month for usage. More than the last increase in council tax for most .
I am more annoyed at the Wirral residents who thought it was a good idea for those who used them ,paid for the service.
It hasn't helped their cause, because it comes out of a different budget than the things they need to worry about.It is more likely that the contractors have put their cost up and therefore our payments have covered the shortfall within the council . Therefore, they should be re negotiating with the company. Surely WMBC must have the upper hand in that matter.
So far as renovating houses. Elizabeth, just my opinion by the way. I think we might be expecting new residents from foreign lands in the new year. Possibly another government driven idea ,with funding, that is kept quiet.
Did you know there is a company trawling the length and breadth buying up cars for export to Rumania. The carriers Craiss which can carry 10cars at a time are enourmous single storey ,covered in ,vehicles. I suppose the cars will all be driven back again in January carrying a num ber of passengers.
Yes, agreed, a very cynical response, but can anyone blame us for thinking 'alterior motive'.
Sorry, back to bins, yep, stick it in your green bin there are not any restrictions on contents in the green bin. Just one drawback could be, if they are used for garden waste, why on earth would it not be charged, because those people didnt want to pay for a brown bin.?

I get the feeling you called Streetscene for an argument rather than help or support, I kind of feel sorry for the lady on the phone if I'm honest.

Why on earth would you have chosen the GREY bin for this exercise anyway? We are really lucky that we can use a GREY bin, my mum lives in Sefton and their recycling is much more complicated. We dump it all in one and the Council sort it out, it's great. And if we are lucky enough to have recycling points at all major supermarkets for clothes and shoes etc that go to charity. We have a great system on the Wirral. So they empty them every fortnight, perhaps we should all work at not producing so much waste rather than having a go and a moan at the council.

A little effort from us all would go a long way. Can't afford £35 per year? Small garden? Box clever, team up with 1 or 2 other households, neighbours, we all have them???

Before we ever had brown bins which isn't really that long ago, what did people do with their garden waste then?
Gardens haven't suddenly grown in size to produce all this !
Also, will they collect 2 grey bins as the green bins were cut down to one per collection.
I believe they sell the recycled waste so probably would for the money!

I pay and happy(ish) to do so. The alternative of taking garden waste to the tip is not a sensible one at all.Collect the grass and leaves into black bags, store them to get wet and soggy,load the car with umpteen soggy black bags,drive to Bidston, wait in a queue at Bidston,unload the car.Or put all the stuff into the brown bin and once a fortnight off it all goes, easy,well worth the £35.
As for suggesting dumping it in Birkenhaed park, outrageous comment.
This thread seems to me more of a political comment than anything else.Quite clearly the grey bins are for recycling and nothing else.As has been said many times on this forum the green bins can be used for garden waste.That must depend on how big your garden is.A weekly summer cut of our grass pretty much fills the brown bin.

I am happy to pay for my garden waste to be collected.I would prefer to keep people in jobs and money to be spent on essential services. Most people in my road appear to share my view.
To put garden waste in a grey bin as opposed to a green one to my mind is asking for confrontation.The men are doing a difficult job and could do without provocation.I am very grateful
to all bin people and street cleaners.I do not want their job.

Getting confused, please explain.
Do we all have the same coloured bins on Wirral for the same items? I am reading that in certain areas, the grey bins seem to be used for general waste, but they are not here.

Green.....general waste. E.g. anything
Grey.......paper,plastic,glass,tin
Brown.....garden waste.

Different councils seem to vary much in colours and the number of different re-cycling boxes, particularly in Wales.


No, gardens haven't got bigger, but prior to the one bin with closed lid rule, we used to be able to put out black bags. Any amount of them. Also, there were weekly collections of green bins before the grey bins arrived, then we were given brown bins and 'told' we had to use the brown bin for garden waste for re-cycling purposes. No choice .
Sharing is not an option for many Sallybear ,as we generally have larger than average gardens ,all over Wirral. Nice idea where it could work ,providing everyone coughs up.

Wirral residents have just the three you mention Granny. May be different if you come under Ellesmere Port or Chester. Certainly is in Liverpool where they they have horrible purple bins.

I also pay Elizabeth, but under protest as what will be subject to a surcharge next year? The 'golden pension pots' was mentioned and of course that filling accounts for 25% of the council tax that we pay because Public sector pensions are unaffordable. That is due to the amount we have to pay in as the 'employers' contribution'.

Maybe garden waste is the start and by objections in future, we do need to ensure that it is also the last one and that it is soon rescinded as it is patently unfair. Those who need the brown bins the most, already pay the lion's share of the council tax levied so why charge us more?

Regarding 'what did we do before brown bins, well we were issued with white '1 Ton' cement bags with large handles which were collected regularly. We also put garden waste into the general bin which was collected weekly and also black bags were permitted. To be rid of larger items of course, visits to the 'recycling centre' were a must, but not very often. You can still do that but why put rubbish into a brand new car and why generally, spend a fortune on filling up with petrol to get there?
Council tax is for council services, the introduction of extras is the start of a slippery slope to a second tier council tax.

Council tax rose by 2%. How much would it have risen for everyone if they kept the free service? I never used it and like the idea of a subscription for it.

The council was offered a £1.3m Government grant offered to help town halls across the country to freeze council tax this year, but Labour turned it down.

The OP has a point about the staircase though. Labour's excuse is that the Tories earmarked money for it. It didn't mean they had to use it on the staircase, nor make it a double-glazed, stainless steel and cast-iron staircase (that wasn't on the plans!)

Some good points on it here:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/fresh-twist-wirral-council-downton-6359879

I have looked at the Echo article and what amazes me (leaving aside the cost)is it looks like there is carpet being laid on it. Now to my mind and with a fair amount of H&S under my belt, why would anybody use flammable materials on a fire escape?

Any fire escape should be non-flammable to ensure the safe egress from the building, for those for who may one day, need to use it.

Strange goings on here!!!!

Looks more like dust sheets that carpeting, tbh...

Definitely dust sheeting, including the red one. It naturally has to be double glazed in order to muffle the screams of the escaping councillors.

Certainly is different, comes under Cheshire West & Chester council.

2 crates for recycling (including things like clothes, shoes, batteries, used cooking oil and lots of other stuff) and a plastic food caddy for any food waste that can't go on the compost heap (lockable to keep the vermin out), these are emptied weekly. If there's too much to fit into the crates it can be put out in any suitable container.

Green wheelie bin for garden waste which is collected free of charge (at the moment anyway) and black wheelie bin for general non-recyclable waste, both emptied every 2 weeks. If you are regularly filling more than 1 binful of garden waste you can have a second bin emptied for £35/year. Our black bin is rarely more than 1/3 full because so much goes into the crates.

Have to say I'm far more impressed with the service we get here than I ever was with Wirral.

Welcome to WikiWirral pampelmouse. We love a good rant.

No Personal Insults Please!
https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums..._Insults_Zero_Toleranc.html#Post541411al

Council are now collecting upto 65.000 unwanted brown bins.from Wirral residents who dont want to pay 35 pounds GARDEN TAX.only 110.00 households were issued with brown bins but only 35.000 have chosen to pay to the subscription.This is staggering amount.

if that many bins have been returned, then the route for collection must now be a lot smaller,quicker to accomplish and cost a lot less fuel to be used. If the council ahs any 'nous', it will have now agreed a variation to the contract for collection arriving at a much lower price.

Surely the money now saved should be sufficient for collections to the few to be made F.O.C. as the new agreedprice should be a lot lower that when this crazy idea started. I mean who made and distributed bins to 75,000 (110,000 - 35,000)residents who didn't need them?

Thats the Tramere area alone.frightening to see what others dont want them.But i have took the council advice and started to use them for a compost bin in the winter and then chnge it to a water butt in the Summer .Merry xmas when it comes Men12esis x

Excellent idea Candyfloss, we need ours for garden waste so we can't do that, but congratulations on making good use of it. Merry Christmas to you as well Candyfloss.xx