10,000 people needed to sign up by the 15th February 2015 to make the proposed service viable. By the middle of January over 8 000 residents had signed up and by the due date it was over 12 000. We are there!
Now, those who have signed up need to make sure they make the necessary payment, and you can do this via the Sutton website.
Stopping the free service will save the Council £736,000 a year, a contribution to the £40 million needed as a result of Government cuts.
Sutton Council will begin charging for Green Garden Waste Collection from July 2015.
Residents had until 15th February 2015 to sign up for the service. They can still sign up and make the required payment, either online by visiting
or by returning the form received in the post to the Council.
A 240 litre bin will be charged at £59 annually with an early bird discount rate of £49 offered to people who signed up before the 15th February 2015. That’s cheaper than neighbouring boroughs of Kingston (£71), Merton (£65) and Richmond (£60). This decision was taken by the Environment and Neighbourhood’s Committee after almost 2,000 people had their say on the future of the service. The consultation was part of the Council’s “Sutton’s Future” campaign which encourages residents to help the Council achieve £40m of savings from its annual budget by 2019. The savings are being forced by unprecedented government reductions to funding and growing demand for Council services.
Residents were given the option of the current free service becoming a charged for service, or being stopped completely. The paid for service will start on 1 July, 2015. The Borough-wide consultation included a telephone survey representative of the Borough, an online survey on the Sutton’s Future website and three ‘Have Your Say’ events where residents could give their views in person and ask questions. In the telephone survey, 79% of those surveyed had a garden and 74% of these used the current service. Out of the 1,002 people surveyed, 32% were in favour of charging for the service and 42% supported it being stopped. In the online survey, out of the 892 people that took part, 69% favoured the chargeable service and 60% said they intended to subscribe, while 11% said they supported the service stopping. In the three ‘Have Your Say’ events, the preferred option among the 92 attendees was to charge for the service.