CHANGES to bin collection days for thousands of residents will be starting next week.

As part of a drive to make South Lakeland District Council’s waste and recycling collection services more efficient, the collection days for 65% of the district’s homes will be changing over the next few months.

Letters and new calendars have been sent to households in the first phase of the project, which are areas serviced by the Kendal depot – including Kendal, Staveley, Burneside, Windermere, Bowness, Sedbergh, Kirkby Lonsdale, Arnside, Milnthorpe, Beetham, Burton-in-Kendal, Grasmere and Ambleside – explaining the changes and whether they will be getting a change in their collection day.

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The new collections in the first phase area will begin in the week starting September 21. Until then, collection days remain the same.

The changes to collection days are being made to make sure all the bin rounds are operating as efficiently as possible.

This will then allow the council to continue its roll-out of plastic and cardboard kerbside recycling to the whole district.

Once the collection day changes are in place the council will start to introduce plastic and cardboard recycling in areas that do not currently receive the service.

A separate letter explaining when areas will start receiving plastic and cardboard recycling will be delivered, along with a new blue recycling bag for storing plastic and cans, at a later date.

Once the day changes are in place the next area to move onto plastic and cardboard collections will be Arnside, Kirkby Lonsdale and Milnthorpe, starting in November. 

Other areas will follow after this, with the intention that all parts of the district will be on plastic and cardboard kerbside recycling by the end of 2016. 

The second phase of the collection day changes will introduce new rounds for homes served by the Ulverston depot from November 2.

Letters in special green envelopes will be sent to residents in the phase two area – which includes Grange, Coniston, Hawkshead, Broughton, Ulverston, Greenodd and Swarthmoor – in mid-October.

These residents will continue to receive collections on their existing collection day until the new second phase rounds start in November.

A handy search facility is now on SLDC’s website (www.southlakeland.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/collection-calendar/ ), which allows residents in the first phase area to put in their postcode to check their new collection day and calendar.

Information about the collection changes affecting residents in the second phase area will be added to the website search facility in the next few weeks.

Around five per cent of properties across the district, normally individual or isolated buildings, farms or properties on streets with particular access issues, are not part of this initial optimisation process and will therefore not show up on the website search facility. The council is writing to all those households separately with specific details about any changes to their collections.

The project to ‘optimise’ collection rounds is designed to make them as efficient as possible.

The study has examined every detail, from the types of wagons used to how narrow streets are in different areas and even how many right turns are made by wagons during a typical round, which can slow progress and delay other drivers.

All this detailed information has been analysed and new rounds have been drawn-up to make the very best use of resources and save money on fuel costs.

It also means the council will be able to introduce the plastic and cardboard kerbside collections to the rest of the district within existing resources –  allowing the council to deliver an improved service without extra cost to the taxpayer. 

Cllr Sue Sanderson, SLDC’s portfolio holder for Environment and People, said: “Residents in the first phase area have now all received their green envelopes and should know whether their collection day is changing from next week.

“Not everyone will have a change in their collection day but 65 per cent of people in South Lakeland will get a day change as part of this project, so it is important everyone checks the information supplied, by reading the letter in the green envelope and checking details on our website.

“Once the day changes are in place we will then start to look at rolling out the plastic and cardboard kerbside recycling, and we will write to everyone telling them exactly when that will happen and also provide them with a new blue bag for storing their plastic and cans recycling.

“By making these changes to collection days we are saving money and making ourselves more efficient, paving the way for us to deliver this improved kerbside recycling service to improve our recycling rates.

“The project also ‘future-proofs’ our collections by taking into account the potential new housing numbers across the district, once major development sites in the Local Plan are completed.

“As this is such a large project we recognise that there may be the odd teething issue to contend with as the new rounds settle down, but we hope residents will appreciate that we are doing this to ultimately improve our collection services and to save money for the benefit of all the district’s taxpayers.’’

For information updates on the collection changes visit SLDC’s website: www.southlakeland.gov.uk/collectionchanges

Follow SLDC on Twitter  - @SouthLakelandDC – or ‘like’ the council’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/southlakelanddistrictcouncil, for the latest updates, information and reminders about the collection changes.