Thousands more residents can now sign up for garden waste collections.

Durham County Council is expanding its service to 7,000 more households across Teesdale from March.

The authority currently operates a bin-based garden waste collection service across the county but has recently seen an increased interest in the scheme, with more than 66,000 households registering an interest in the service.

People in Teesdale communities have up until now had their garden waste collected by Rotters Community Composting – a continuation of arrangements dating back to the days of Teesdale District Council.

But Rotters has said it will not be continuing the service from this year. The council has now set out plans to offer its garden bin collections to residents it has not previously served.

Read more: Plans show how Blackwell Parkland in Darlington will be redeveloped

John Shannon, our strategic waste manager, said: “We are pleased to now be able to offer our garden waste collections to even more residents in Teesdale from March.

“People can sign up to the service from today and we would appreciate it if those who are interested could do so online if possible as this helps us add them to our system quickly, although there are other ways to subscribe.

“Everyone who signs up will be provided with a bin at no extra charge but we would ask them to bear with us as there are potentially thousands to deliver.”

The council is in the process of writing to the 7,000 households who will now be able to access the service providing information on the collections and details of how to sign up.

The cost to subscribe for 2023 is £38 for the garden waste season and that includes the initial cost of the first bin and delivery of it. Anyone signing up before March 1 will receive all 17 fortnightly collections through to November for that price.

Residents signing up are advised that their garden waste collection day may be on a different day to their rubbish and recycling collections. Collection date calendars and a sticker will be provided to each subscribing household.

Sign-ups will not be possible for the 2023 season after September 1, 2023.

Read next: 

If you want to read more great stories, why not subscribe to your Northern Echo for as little as £1.25 a week. Click here

Mr Shannon added: “We would like to place on record our thanks to Rotters for providing such a good and very popular service to people in Teesdale for almost 20 years.

“We were very sorry to hear those collections were ending but we are now looking ahead to offering our own service to anyone who would like it across Teesdale.”

Full details of the service and how to sign up can be found at the council’s garden waste collections web page.