You can now sign up online or over the phone to sign up for the service for the first time, or renew the service to continue past 1 March

There is no sign up deadline, but if you don’t renew an existing contract before 1 March 2022 then your service will pause until you renew.

You can expect your new bin to arrive within four weeks of signing up to the service for the first time, but most are arriving after about two weeks.

If you are renewing you will be able to continue your current bin.

Yes you can start using your new bins straight away. Only the garden waste in the brown bin will be collected.

The annual fee is:

• £59 for a standard size bin

• £39 for a smaller bin

Unlike many local authorities that run this type of scheme, we are not asking for you to purchase the bin, this is included in the annual cost. 

Once you have subscribed to receive the service for the first time, you will be delivered a brown wheelie bin.

You will be able to pay online or via yearly direct debit. There will be detailed terms of conditions available to view as part of the sign up.

Phased payments, part payments or discounts are not available.

Unfortunately not, Direct Debit is set up to take a one-off payment once a year (usually at the start of the year) we will give you 10 working days notification before we do take the payment.

If you are in receipt of  a council tax reduction there is a £10 discount on the cost of purchasing the green waste service. Please phone our customer service centre, who will take your details check and then confirm if a discount applies.

The standard sized bin (240l) is 1m high, 70cm deep and 60cm wide ^{(jpg, 2mb)} (Equivalent to around 2.7 of the current garden waste bags weight capacity)

The smaller bin(140l) is 1m high, 55cm deep and 50cm wide. ^{(jpg, 2.4mb)} (Equivalent to around 1.6 of the current garden waste bags weight capacity)

No. However, if you have a council approved bag system for your current residual waste or recycling service because of accessibility issues, or the type of house frontage that you have, you will be able to continue with a bag system, but you will have to pay for the collection - £39 for up to two bags (equivalent to smaller bin), and £59 for up to three bags (equivalent to standard bin).

There are some council approved locations where for operational reasons there is not room for an additional bin, which will continue to operate with a bag collection, but on the same charged for basis as above.

You are able to take your garden waste free of charge to the Household Waste Recycling Centres, or you can compost it at home. Find out more here: www.getcomposting.com

If garden waste is added to residual waste bins, these will not be collected.

The service runs for the annual period 1 March 2022 to 28 Feb 2023. You can sign up at anytime.

Those wishing to continue with the service will have to pay again when the year is up.

You are able to share the bins with a neighbour if you want to reduce your individual cost, but we will need a single point of contact from whichever is the lead neighbour.

If you currently receive an assisted collection and sign up to the new service, you will continue to receive an assisted collection.

Christmas trees will continue to be collected from all properties in the weeks after Christmas as detailed on your calendar.

If you currently receive an assisted collection and sign up to the new service, you will continue to receive an assisted collection.

Yes - call our Customer Service team on 0300 300 0013 to request to downsize your other bins.

From 1 February, the city council now operates an annual charged for garden waste collection service in common with all the other authorities within Hampshire except Fareham. However, Fareham is also due to begin a chargeable service from February 2022.   

The new service is separate to your council tax. The old ‘green bag’ service was not used by all residents as not all have gardens, but was paid for as part of every council tax payment.

The council tax for 20/21 was set at a level to cover the cost of delivering the free bag service to all residents only until part way through the 20/21 year, when the change to the new charged for service was introduced i.e. 1 February 21.

The new service, which started part way through the 20/21 council tax year, makes sure that only those who use choose to use the service, pay for it, and as this means it is no longer a tax on everyone.

Winchester City Council has set the second lowest service price of all Hampshire councils. We are offering a larger bin to those who need it. There is no extra charge for the bin, as you pay for the service only. The new bins can hold much more garden waste than the previous green bags, are easier to move around, and aren’t affected by the weather. We provide a service for nearly all of the year (25 weeks every fortnight apart from one fortnight over Christmas) unlike other areas, where some services cease over the winter.

For those not wishing to take part in the charged for garden waste service, residents have access to the household waste recycling centre run by Hampshire County Council, where garden waste can be deposited for free, or discounted composters are available to those who prefer to use that approach.

To ensure that we know who has paid for the collection and which bins to collect for the year from 1 March 2022 to 28 April 2023, everyone who has signed up for the service for this second year, or has signed up to the service for the first time this year, is being sent a garden waste licence sticker to attach to their bin.

The sticker will arrive through the post to the property where the service has been paid for.

The sticker comes with instructions on how to attach it, but you should peel the sticker from the backing and then place it below the handles of your brown garden waste bin onto a clean dry surface, and smooth out any bubbles.  It may help to clean the area with soapy water allow to dry before applying the sticker.

So that it is easy for the collection crew to see the sticker when they collect the bins, the bins should be presented with the handles facing towards the road.

Yes – you get a sticker per bin.

Each bin needs to have a sticker visible to ensure it is emptied.

All stickers should be delivered within six weeks of payment for the service.