Thousands of residents have taken part in a ‘Community Conversation’ to help shape the future of waste and recycling collections in Westmorland and Furness.
A survey and feedback given at a series of briefings and in-person and online workshop sessions during November and December has seen around 3,000 people share their views on current services in their area, including what they like, what they would like to change and what they’d like to see in the future.
The evidence from the Community Conversation is now being collated and analysed. The results will help to inform a draft vision for how consistent waste and recycling collection services will be delivered across the whole of Westmorland and Furness.
This draft vision proposal will then be subject to further public engagement in the first half of this year, and the feedback from that engagement will help councillors make a final decision in the summer on how the new collection services will look.
Residents can expect to see the first changes being implemented by the end of the year, with the majority of service revisions in place by the end of 2027.
Feedback from the Community Conversation survey has indicated many residents in parts of the Eden area are interested in seeing how wheelie bins could work instead of the current blue bag system for general waste.
In response to that feedback and to gather further evidence, the council is launching a pilot trial of wheelie bins in the south/east of Penrith, around the Carleton Meadows area, starting early March and being reviewed over the following two months.
Wheelie bins will be delivered to around 550 properties in an area that has been chosen for the pilot because it has a mix of types of houses and access arrangements, so the council can test collection methods, assess costs and gather more feedback from residents in the trial area about how they have found using wheelie bins instead of bags.
Residents in the trial area will be receiving a letter with more details, including how they will be able to share their views as the trial progresses.
The council is also assessing the results and feedback from another trial in Ulverston last year of a ‘co-mingled’ recycling system, where all recycling materials were placed in a single container, rather than separate bags and boxes, to be sorted at the processing plant rather than by residents at the kerbside.
The trial was seeing whether this made it easier and more convenient for residents to recycle, one of the key ambitions for the revised collection service.
The results of the Ulverston co-mingled recycling trial and the forthcoming Eden wheelie bin trial will be included alongside the feedback from the Community Conversation and upcoming public engagement to help inform the final decision on future waste and recycling collections.
Councillor Giles Archibald, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate, Biodiversity and Environmental Services, said: “I am delighted that so many people have already engaged with this process to help to shape the future of waste and recycling collections.
“It is important to us that we design our future services to reflect the views of our residents and 3,000 people have already shared their thoughts through the Community Conversations before Christmas and I would like to thank them for their contributions.’’
Angela Jones, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Director of Thriving Places, added: “This feedback, alongside the trials in Ulverston and Eden and the further opportunity for comment in the forthcoming public engagement, means we are involving our communities at every stage as we move towards a final decision.
“Our aim is to reduce waste, increase recycling, and provide better performing and more efficient services for our residents that are consistent across the whole of the Westmorland and Furness area. We also want to make it easier and more convenient for people to recycle and minimise their waste.
“It is therefore important that we understand what works for people and that the services we are designing have had strong input from our communities.’’
To help keep residents informed about the programme to re-shape waste and recycling collections and answer questions about the service, green waste charging and how people can find out more about missed collections, a new waste and recycling information section has been created on the council’s website.
The new web section has lots of useful information about waste and recycling services, including links to an improved service status page and explanations about why you may sometimes see your recycling being picked up in a bin wagon.
It also includes facts and figures about how much of your Council Tax is spent on waste and recycling collections, numbers of collections the council makes and how many miles collection crews travel across Westmorland and Furness every year.