I am very proud of Monmouthshire’s excellent performance recycling waste. It says a lot about our thoughtful caring local population and about the way our team within the authority are leading the way.

Wales as a whole has a brilliant record – presently second in the whole world for recycling household waste. But Monmouthshire does even better, only half a percentage point behind the 70 per cent target set for 2025!

Now we are currently consulting residents on the way in which we collect green waste. Many of you may recycle/compost at home or take you waste to one of our special sites. But the authority also offers a green-waste collection service.

Garden waste collections are non-statutory and at present the collections are being subsidised by all residents regardless if they use the service or not.

The authority moved to a wheeled-bin service two years ago and the service has proved immensely popular. The original £28 cost was subsidised with an external grant which is no longer available.

With our current squeeze on balancing our books, we are asking the 14,000 people who use this service to consider several options:

These are: to keep the service frequency as it is (fortnightly) for £50 per bin per year (20 collections); to reduce the frequency of the collections to four-weekly for £42.50 per bin per year (10 collections); to reduce the frequency of the collections to six-weekly for £35 per bin per year (6 collections); or for some to cease collections.

The replies will assessed and a decision, based on customers’ preference and the most viable service, will be taken in January so that we can restart this much appreciated service in March 2023.

Overall, despite the high cost of servicing a large county with a widely dispersed population, I am really proud of the way we manage recycling here.

Green policies are at the very heart of our administration and whatever the pressures, we are determined to play our part looking after our area sustainably and contributing to the survival of our planet.