Hundreds of people visited special stalls giving out information about options for future waste and recycling services.
Part of the council’s current community consultation to gather views on how waste and recycling collections across Westmorland and Furness should be delivered, staff from the waste engagement team set up stalls in street markets and community venues during June.
The team visited Alston, Kendal, Barrow, Appleby, Penrith and Ulverston and were able to chat face-to-face with more than 300 people.
So far around 4,000 residents have completed a survey and provided feedback through the options consultation, sharing their views on options such as sizes of containers and frequency of collections.
For more information about the options and to take part in the consultation complete the Options Consultation Survey
Councillor Giles Archibald, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate, Biodiversity and Environmental Services, said: “We’ve already had a fantastic response to our community consultation and it was great to see so many people visit our market stall sessions during June.
“Some people had come specifically to speak to the team having seen the event advertised and some were just passing and saw the stall and came along for a chat and to ask questions.
“The team spoke to around 300 people with the busiest day being at Penrith Market. During the market stall sessions more than 100 paper copies of the consultation survey were handed out and overall we’ve now had about 4,000 responses to our survey.
“We want to create a new single waste and recycling service for the whole of Westmorland and Furness, a service that makes it easier and more convenient for people to recycle more and waste less, and that is more reliable, cost-effective and better for the environment.
“We want to hear from as many people as possible before we finalise designs for the new-look services and we are determined to make sure these services work for our communities.
“The survey runs until 11 July, so if you haven’t already had your say there is still plenty of time to share your thoughts and comments.’’
The options being consulted on now have been developed following feedback from an initial ‘Community Conversation’ engagement at the end of last year, when nearly 3,000 people shared their thoughts on current waste and recycling collection services in their area – what they like, what they would like to change and what they would like to see in the future.
Thanks to that feedback, the council has been trialling different collection methods and containers, including a trial of ‘co-mingled’ recycling in Ulverston and a trial of wheelie bins in parts of the Eden area that currently have bags for general waste collections. Residents in those trial areas have shared how they found the new arrangements and whether it made it easier for them to recycle more and waste less.
The council has also started to roll-out the kerbside collection of beverage cartons (such as Tetrapak), starting in the Eden area, after feedback that residents wanted to be able to recycle these items more easily.
The feedback from the current Options Consultation will be considered alongside independent assessment of factors such as how the options fit with national legislation, do they make services fairer, how would they impact the environment, whether they are sustainable and whether they could contribute to more efficient and cost-effective services.
For more information about the criteria being used in the assessment, what the changes would mean for collections in your area, a summary of results from the ‘Community Conversation’ engagement and answers to questions about the options being considered, see the dedicated website page on the Waste and Recycling Options Consultation.
A final decision on the new-look services will be made later this year, with the first changes being rolled out by the end of 2025.
Paper copies of the survey area available in the receptions of the council’s main public buildings at Barrow Town Hall, Kendal Town Hall and Voreda House, Penrith, as well as council libraries, and posters advertising the consultation have been distributed to parish and town councils, put up on community noticeboards and the consultation is advertised in the latest edition of the resident magazine Westmorland and Furness News, distributed to 120,000 homes across the area.