Garden waste collections – service suspended

Garden waste collections are temporarily suspended.

This difficult decision has been taken now to free up available staff to ensure that food waste, recycling, refuse and clinical waste collections continue. This decision will be kept under constant review.

The Council is doing everything it can to ensure services are maintained and this decision is in line with what a number of councils across the country are doing. The service is already stretched as our contractor is feeling the effect of the national shortage of HGV drivers. This is leading to ongoing difficulties in recruiting drivers and competing for agency drivers to cover the permanent vacancies left unfilled. There is also an increasing number of people nationally having to isolate as they follow the Government’s COVID guidelines.

We apologise for the inconvenience the suspension of garden waste collections will cause and thank you for your patience as our resources are focused on priority services.

What should I do with garden waste?

You may choose to store any new garden waste in your garden or compost it. Please do not overfill your garden waste bin as that might mean that it will be too heavy and will not be collected when the service recommences.

Keep garden waste out of your other bins otherwise they will be considered contaminated and will not be emptied.

Kent County Council’s Household Waste and Recycling Centres are open if you wish to dispose of your garden waste, a booking system is in operation on the KCC website.

Subscriptions will be extended for the period that the service is suspended.