A WEBSITE has been launched to allow residents to subscribe to garden waste collection, after plans were passed to stop providing the service free of charge.

St Helens Council will introduce a charge to its non-statutory garden waste collection service from Monday, June 5.

The launch of the website, is to allow residents to subscribe and pay for the service if they want to, as well as providing information about the changes, including a frequently asked questions section.

The online charge for the year for the service will be £30, meaning £1.50 per collection. This increases to £35 a year or £1.75 per collection if done over the phone.

The collections would be fortnightly and residents are advised to subscribe early to ensure that their garden waste collections continue over the summer.

The change comes as the council looks to make savings of £7.4 million for the 2017/18 financial year, cutting the service which currently costs them £931,000 per year in operational costs.

It also follows almost half of all the councils in the UK which also charge for green waste collection.

Residents who subscribe will be provided with a licence sticker to attach to their green bin, and will be required to renew their subscription annually.

Households who choose not to subscribe to the scheme are advised to make their own alternative disposal arrangements.

Non-subscribers’ garden waste will not be collected from June 5 and brown general waste bins with garden waste inside will not be emptied.

If residents already have green bins they can keep them for storage, or use them as a water butt, if unwanted, residents can arrange for their green bins to be collected during the service’s winter break.

The subscription period will run from June 5 until the end of May 2018, with a winter break during December, January and February when no collections will take place.

To visit the website go to sthelens.gov.uk/gardenwaste. Free computer access is available at local libraries.

Alternatively, from Tuesday May 2, residents can sign up via telephone, by calling 01744 676789.