Bin collection change petition to be handed in

A petition signed by more than 4,000 people against changes to bin collections in Wiltshire will be handed to the council this week.

Wiltshire Council is cutting the collection of black bin waste from fortnightly to once every three weeks from 2027.

A campaign to save fortnightly bin collections was launched in March and gathered 4,064 signatures.

The council will comment on the petition at a full council meeting on Tuesday from 10:30 BST.

The council said it could save £3.4m by moving to a three-week residual waste cycle.

Meanwhile, waste contractors will begin weekly food waste collections and soft plastics recycling which the council said will reduce the amount of refuse in residual rubbish bins.

It added 40% of the average household bin in Wiltshire is food waste.

The plans were given the final sign-off in February.

• New food waste collections will be weekly
• Every fortnight glass, mixed dry recyclables, chargeable garden waste, and flexible plastic such as plastic bags and crisp packets will be collected.
• Black bin waste will be collected every three weeks.

The petition was set up by Calne-based Conservative and Reform UK county and town councillors, as part of the county-wide Say No to 3-Weekly Bins campaign.

Of the 4,064 signatures about 3,252 were from Wiltshire postcodes, a council report said.

The campaigners behind the group are councillors Augusta Urquhart-Nicholls, Ashley O'Neill, and Mike Sankey.

They said the move will hurt "those least able to absorb the impact," including "elderly people managing chronic illness, families with young children, carers supporting relatives with disabilities, and households already under financial strain."

Additional reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

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