More than 9,000 Wokingham residents have taken part in a consultation on potential changes to their rubbish and recycling collections, which ended on 5 December 2022.
Wokingham Borough Council is now analysing feedback received from the eight-week consultation, which will help form a new waste strategy that will go before the council’s decision making executive committee in February next year.
Initial findings of survey
Initial findings of the survey show that:
67 per cent of respondents like or can accept fortnightly collections
When asked what they think of changing rubbish and recycling collections to fortnightly, while keeping weekly food waste collections, the survey found:
- 24 per cent like it
- 43 per cent can accept it
- 7 per cent are neutral
- 26 per cent don’t support it
70 per cent of respondents don’t support changing to three weekly rubbish collections
When asked what they think of changing the general rubbish collections to every three weeks, recycling every two weeks, and keeping weekly food waste collections, the survey found:
- 70 per cent do not support it
- 6 per cent are neutral
- 15 per cent can accept it
- 9 per cent like the idea
69 per cent of respondents like or can accept wheeled bins
When asked what they thought of having a wheeled bin for their general rubbish instead of using the blue bags, the survey found:
- 44 per cent like it
- 25 per cent can accept it
- 9 per cent are neutral
- 22 per cent don’t support it
Make a big difference to budget
Cllr Clive Jones, leader of the council said, “We are grateful that so many of our residents have come forward to share their views on this. As we’ve been saying for months now, our financial situation has become increasingly critical due to rising inflation, energy costs and other things.
“If we want to continue providing essential support to our residents who need it most, we need to redesign some of our services to be more efficient. Changing the way we collect rubbish and recycling can make a big difference to our budget.
“A look at the headline results of the survey tells us clearly that our residents are willing and ready to take on changes that would help us ride out the storm.”
Cllr Ian Shenton, executive member for environment, sport and leisure said: “It is encouraging to see so many residents support moving to fortnightly rubbish and recycling collections. It’s the right thing for our finances and it’s the right thing for the environment.
“We hope to see the changes come into force as soon as possible, because this would save us about £700,000 per year right away, followed by a higher amount after starting a new waste collection contract in 2026. We are looking at the responses as quickly as we can, so that we can identify and address any issues or concerns that residents raised to us in our final proposals.
More from Wokingham Borough Council
Stay connected
Stay connected to the communities around you. Enjoy the latest news, updates and highlights straight in your inbox. Subscribe to our Wokingham Borough Connect newsletters now.
