Garden waste collections to be trialled in Leeds

12.00.00am GMT Mon 27th Feb 2006

Leeds gardeners will have even greener fingers this year with Leeds City Council's investment of £355,000 to trial kerbside collections of garden waste.

The investment is part of the budget proposals of the ruling Lib Dem/Conservative/Green administration which will be tabled at the meeting of full council tomorrow (Tuesday 28th February). Up to 10,000 properties will be involved in the scheme which will begin later this year. These residents will be able to leave their garden waste outside their home to be collected in the same way that refuse and recycling collections currently operate.

Once the pilot has ended, its success will be evaluated by the council and decided whether the scheme should be made permanent and whether it should be extended to other areas.

Leeds City Council has already made great progress on composting since the Lib Dem/Conservative/Green administration took control and last year the council met its target for the amount of waste composted for the first time ever. Cllr Steve Smith, Executive Member for City Services is hoping that the introduction of garden waste collections will further improve this record.

"My ambition is for Leeds to be second to none on recycling. We are putting our money where our mouth is and investing a big sum of money to help Leeds residents recycle more of their garden waste.

"I have high hopes for the pilot scheme as eventually I would like to see it in place on a permanent basis and covering a lot more households. This administration already has an excellent record on composting and running these collections will improve this even further."

The views in this Press Release are those of the Liberal Democrat Council Group, and not necessarily those of Leeds City Council, its Officers or of the Liberal Democrat Party.