PENDLE gardeners who have their garden waste composted through the council’s scheme are being reminded to make the most of their green bins between now and the end of November.

Green bin collections across the borough stop in December and start again in March 2020.

Carole Taylor, Pendle Council’s Waste and Recycling Co-ordinator said: “Now’s the time to sweep leaves, do a final grass cut and any pruning, weeding and clearing of fallen fruit to prepare your garden for winter.

“Any gardeners who do have garden waste over the winter can find details on our website about home composting and taking garden waste to a Household Waste Recycling Centre."

Leader of Pendle Council, Cllr Mohammed Iqbal, added: "Very few people actually used the service between December and February.

“Even before we tried the opt-in system there was a drop in use of over 80 per cent over the winter.

“It’s proved to be a waste of time and money to have garden waste wagons driving round Pendle when so few people put their green bins out.

“Burnley, Blackburn, Hyndburn, Rossendale and Craven Councils do not provide a garden waste service in the winter.

“Pendle decided this is the sensible approach given that we need to make financial savings

“There simply isn’t the demand,” he said.

“Pendle’s garden waste service is still among the cheapest in the country and it’s a subsidised service to help Pendle recycle more,” added Councillor Iqbal.

“It’s an eco-friendly scheme and Pendle collects over 2,500 tonnes of garden waste which is made into compost,” he added.

All gardeners on the green bin scheme were told there would be no collections over the winter when they signed up and were reminded about this when they got their bin stickers and via Facebook and Twitter.

Annual calendars with dates for waste and recycling collections including garden waste details will be delivered from Friday November 8 until Sunday December 1.