Christmas Bin Collections and City Council opening hours

The Christmas holidays always bring some disruption to bin collections owing to the cluster of bank holidays. This year is no exception and collections usually scheduled between Boxing Day and January 6th are all moved back one day.

This means if your bins are due to be collected on Thursdays, then they won't be collected on the 29th December and 5th January, but will instead be collected on Friday 30th and and Friday 6th January.

Collections should be back to normal on the week starting Monday 9th January.

On the subject of bins and Christmas, after the holidays real Christmas trees can be recycled by either taking them to Cherry Hinton Hall, or (more likely from this side of Cambridge) by cutting them up and placing in Green bins.

More details can be found on the Christmas Opening pages of the City Council website.

Cambridge City Council have also published details of opening hours for the Service Centre, City Homes and King's Hedges Learner pool (among others). These can all be found on that page.

Hopefully we won't have the same problems with snow as we had last year, but if we do then keep an eye on the City Council webpage for service updates.

If you have any problems or comments on the services, please let the team know.

Christmas eve missed collection

Due to even more snow fall collections had to be suspended on Christmas Eve. Most of King's Hedges has Thursday collections so we were hit by this.

Having checked the Service Updates page at 3:30pm on Wednesday 30th the plan is...

• Black bin collection: it was planned to clear back bins on Wednesday 30th December. If your bin was out and not collected call the City Council on 01223 457000 or 01223 458282
• Green and blue bin collections: will be "collected on their next scheduled collection date, in the week commencing 4 or 13 January", which means if you were due blue and green on Christmas Eve your bin will be collected on Thursday 7th January. This also applies to sacks and boxes.

If you have problems you can put excess waste in the black bin or use the recycling centres, but this is not ideal. Extra recycling can also be put out in your old boxes if you have them.

Sorry for the disruption but controlling a bin lorry on snowy and icy roads is not easy. Every effort was made to collect as much as possible, and the decision to suspend collections was taken very reluctantly indeed.

Tomorrow's scheduled collections are as per usual if the BBC is correct that we will have lots of drizzle and no snow tonight.

(If your collection is Friday remember that it will be delayed to Saturday due to New Years day.)

Snow and City Services

The snow has meant that today's waste collections had to be cancelled. There is also some impact on car parks

Details of the Council's plans can be found on the City Council's website, or by calling 01223 458282.

It looks like today's blue bin and black bin collections will be made on Monday.

Don't forget the changes next week and the week after for Christmas and New Year.

Shrinking bins as blue bins roll out

The first of the blue bins are being delivered to the City today, and on Monday we start delivery to residents ready for the first collections in November.

One of the suprising but pleasing aspects of the blue bin roll out is the number of people who have chosen to switch their black bin from the large to smaller size. Yesterday we received our new mini wheelie bin, shown here this morning next to our normal (large) green bin and me ready for school.

Since we started the blue bin awareness over 500 households have asked to shrink their bin.

They are the same height as normal bins (to make loading easier) but narrower, holding just over half the amount of rubbish.

Many households obviously can't cope with a smaller bin, but if you could cope with a smaller black bin now we have the blue bins I'd ask you to consider it. Waste reduction is much better for the environment than waste recycling, and the shrinking bins shows people taking this seriously. It also gives you back some space!

Meanwhile: expect your blue bin sometime in the next few weeks!

Cambridge News on recycling contract

The Cambridge News have run article about the newly agreed contract with a Materials Recycling Facility. It can be read online.

You should be getting a sticker on your black bin explaining the next steps with the blue bins soon. The bins will be delivered over the next few weeks and the service will start city wide on 16 November: your first collection will be the first green bin day after that date.

Rubbish row yesterday

If you went into the city centre yesterday you may have seen "Rubbish Row". This was an event organised by the Cleaner Cambridge Campaign in partnership with the City Council. I was there in my role as Executive Councillor for Environmental and Waste Services.

The idea was to remind people of the problems caused by dropping litter and alert them to the amount of rubbish that the City Council cleans up. The row was two days worth of litter picked from all over the city by the City Council. I have been promised some photos and will put them up when I get them.

It was also useful as it gave people a chance to talk to City officers and campaigners about problem areas near them. The Council can then act on the problems.

We provide a large number of bins in the city centre and in regional centres (like Campkin Piazza) but some people still drop litter. Part of our message yesterday was to remind people that we have an enforcement team who (along with the police) can issue £75 fixed penalty notices. We'd far rather we didn't have to however.

We also used the opportunity to promote the new blue bin system. The bins should be delivered in late October, and the collections start on 16 November. Your first blue bin collection will be the day of your next green bin collection after that date. Contact us or the City Council if you have any concerns.

North Area Committee tomorrow

The next North Area Committee is tomorrow at Manor School on Arbury Road.

This is your chance to put any questions or problems to all the North Area's Councillors in the Open Forum.

As well as this there are several formal items on the agenda:

• Review of the Council's Gambling policy
• An update on the introduction of the Blue Bins for easier recycling
• Further updates on our Environmental Improvement schemes, including Campking Road Piazza

There are also planning applications considered.

The meeting starts at 6.30pm with the first set of planning applications (Roseford Road, Rees Thomas site, High Street Chesterton, Green End Rd)

At 7.30pm the main agenda will start with the Open Forum.

When that is finished we will finish the planning apps (probably Trafalgar Street, two in De Freville, and Pretoria).

Recycling Getting Easier: Blue Bins

This is the first time we've mentioned it on the Blog, but you may have seen it in Cambridge Matters or at the stand at Arbury Carnival.

The City Council is changing how we collect kerbside recycling to try and increase the amount we collect and hopefully make it easier for residents to recycle more.

The change is to drop the boxes and introduce a third blue wheelie bin. You may have seen the argument about the colour in the Cambridge News! Other cities have introduced similar schemes: I know Derby has a three bin system.

At this stage the City Council are keen to hear from people where the third bin may not be possible. On their website we have a list of places we know may be a problem. If you think there may be an issue where you live check the list and if you aren't on it get in touch with the council by email or through the website.

Where there isn't space we have a range of options that need to be discussed with residents.

Of course if your are worried you can also get in touch with one of the team: in this case it might be best to contact me.