Garden Waste Service 2024/25 - Terms and Conditions

You have agreed for Boston Borough Council to collect your garden waste and to comply with the Council's terms and conditions below in respect of this service.

The Council's terms and conditions are as follows:

1. That you place appropriate garden waste into your brown bin. You should use your existing brown bin. If you do not have a brown bin, you should purchase one from the Council at a cost of £42.40 for this purpose.

2. You will pay the Council an amount of £50 for a first bin of garden waste collected and £30 for each additional bin. Collections will be every alternate week throughout April 2024 until March 2025 with a break during the winter period. If you decide to purchase the service part way through the year, the cost will still be £50 for the collection of one bin and £30 for each additional bin, with payment being due again the following January.

3. If your brown bin is damaged through your neglect, misuse, general wear and tear, e.g. being overloaded or due to age, the cost of replacement will be £42.40, if you have had your one free replacement already.

4. If your bin is damaged by us as a result of our neglect, incorrect handling or by defective equipment, we will either repair it or replace it free of charge as soon as is operationally possible. At our discretion we will replace your bin free of charge for only one occasion. If your bin is damaged, please email gardenwaste@boston.gov.uk or contact us on 01205 314200.

5. Payment for the service is required every year in advance of the service being delivered. You will be notified of the charge/payment date. If payment is not made by the date due for any reason, we will withdraw your service. Please visit our garden waste webpage for further details.

6. When payment has been made for the garden waste service, you will receive one sticker for each bin you have paid for. Your sticker(s) may take up to 10 working days to arrive. Your garden waste bin will be collected if payment has been made 10 days prior to the first collection and is showing on the in cab system. If you have recently paid for a sticker and it hasn't arrived yet but your first collection is approaching, please still present your bin. The in-cab system shows the crew whether a payment has been made for the service, please note however this can take up to 10 days to update, so we cannot guarantee that the bin will be collected if the payment hasn't been made 10 days prior to the first collection. However, if the in-cab system updates quicker the crew will collect the bin.

7. If you move out of the Borough or stop using the service, we will not issue a refund and you must inform us at your earliest convenience to ensure our systems can be updated.

8. If you move to another address in the Boston Borough area, you can take your brown bin(s) with you. To ensure that your collections continue you must contact us to transfer the service to your new address. We will not provide a service to your new address under any circumstances, unless you notify us of your change of address. You should notify us by emailing the garden waste team or by calling 01205 314200. Please note that if you move into a property which has a damaged brown bin, as the occupier of the property you will be entitled to ONE free replacement, as long as there is an active subscription under your name at the property.

9. When you receive the sticker(s), you must attach this to the back of the bin(s). Please follow the instructions on the sticker. We will not empty any bin(s) that does not display a valid sticker or where the sticker cannot be clearly seen at the time of collection.

10. Please ensure that your house name or number, street name and postcode are written in permanent marker, on the sticker, in the blank space provided.

11. We will empty brown bins displaying a valid sticker 20 times fortnightly, between March and November, but we do not empty brown bins during December and January. For 2024, we will collect your brown bins on alternate weeks either on your green bin week or your blue or purple/purple lidded bin week, between 01 April 2024 and week ending 22 November 2024. Your garden waste collections will then resume 17 February 2025 until 30 March 2025.

12. Your brown bin(s) must only be used for garden waste from your property, or from that of a neighbour's property if you are sharing one bin. Types of garden waste accepted for collection includes grass cuttings, hedge/tree cuttings, weeds, prunings and leaves. Types of garden waste not accepted for collection in your brown bin(s) includes food waste, animal waste, soil (including large quantities of soil attached to plant roots), household waste and bricks/rubble. Garden waste must be loose and contained wholly within the bin with the lid firmly closed. We may reject bins if any of these conditions are not met.

13. It is not permitted to share more than one bin between properties in order to avoid the first bin subscription charge. You can share only one bin with a neighbour, if you both only require half a bin or less and have entered into a separate private agreement to share a bin and the costs of the service. We will regularly check our system with crew information and in-cab technology to verify bins which are shared between property locations and we reserve the right to reject and not empty any additional bins which we have reason to believe do not meet the terms and conditions.

14. You should ensure your bin(s) is placed on the curtilage of your property on the night before your collection or by 05:30am on the morning of your collection. We will not return to collect a bin which is presented late for collection. Our vehicles are equipped with CCTV monitoring equipment, which can be used to confirm whether a bin was presented in time.

15. If you are registered to receive an Assisted Collection, we will collect your brown bin(s) at the agreed location on your collection day, empty your brown bin(s) and return it to the agreed location.

16. If you are unsure on your collection day, please refer to our find your bin day page or contact our garden waste team. If you still require assistance, then call 01205 314200 and we will be able to inform you and send out a calendar when required.

17. We may change your collection day at any time. If we do this, we will notify you providing details of when your new collections will be.

18. If we miss your bin, please report it by emailing our garden waste team or calling 01205 314200, within 2 days of the missed collection by 2.00pm. We may check in-cab technology and CCTV to verify if a bin has been missed. If we agree a bin was missed, we will do our best to collect it within 5 working days.

19. Collections may be suspended, such as in severe weather conditions, without notice or compensation. A recollection for any missed collections may be arranged where possible, however, these are not guaranteed if the reason for the suspended service is outside of our control.

20. You are responsible for the contents of your bin. If the contents fail to empty fully during collection we will not return to collect any waste which remains in the bin. Your bin will be collected if presented on your next scheduled collection. In view of this please ensure that any garden waste is loose in your bin and not overly compact, that you do not overfill it and that is not overweight. The decision of whether the bin is overweight is at the crew member's discretion for their own health and safety. Overweight bin(s) will not be collected and if rejected, then you must remove some waste prior to your next scheduled collection.

21. The transfer of service to a third party, living at a different address is not permitted. The contract is with you as the purchaser of the service.

22. We will not be responsible for cleaning any bins at any time during or after collections in any circumstances.

23. In the event that a customer passes away during the period they have paid for the service, then a refund for the annual service charge will be made to their estate, or to an individual who has been granted probate. The refund will be pro-rata from the next whole month after the date of death. A refund will only be provided when the necessary legal requirements are met.

24. Customers who make a one-off card payment online up until 31/03/2024 will be entered into a prize draw where the offer of a free service to the value of £50 will be given. This offer covers the collection of one bin free of charge for one year. If subsequent bins are paid for, they will be charged at £30 per bin. Customers will automatically be entered into this prize draw when payment has been made. The Council will randomly select 10 customers and one of those 10 customers will also receive a 'Lincolnshire Hamper' up to the value of £50. We will contact you using the information you have given in your application and will then make a refund to the value of £50. The competition is not open to employees or members of Boston Borough Council or their immediate families.

25. In the event that you move address and take your bins with you to the new property to continue your subscription but find that a broken brown bin has been left at the property, please contact us and we will arrange for this to be taken away free of charge.

26. If you wish to make a complaint about the service, you should contact us by emailing the garden waste team or by completing the online form by visiting our complaints webpage. We will then deal with your complaint accordingly.

27. Your personal contact details obtained through your application will be used by Boston Borough Council to contact you should we need to obtain further information about your application and to notify you of the action we are taking following your application. Boston Borough Council may also use your information for other lawful purposes such as to prevent fraud. All personal information will be processed in accordance with the current Data Protection Legislation and you have the right to see records relating to yourself and to ask that they be amended where they are inaccurate. A full explanation of your rights and our obligations are available on our website at www.boston.gov.uk. We use: GOSS for the electronic form, Data Graphic & UK Mail for printing and Capita for card payments. Each of these companies process your information and are bound by contract to meet their Data Privacy obligations.