One of our priorities has been keeping bin and waste services free.
Our tips are free and open 7 days a week. We have a largely free bulky waste collection service. And we don't charge for garden waste, whereas in North Yorkshire for example the Tory council is introducing a £49 per year charge for this. That's quite common.
We have the lowest council tax levels in Yorkshire too.
Last year we reported lots of positive progress being made on improving bin collections including doorstep glass recycling for the first time ever in Leeds.
Since then we are happy to say:
The introduction of glass recycling has been a success, in January 1,000 tonnes of glass was recycled in green bins - someone had a good Christmas!
Over 80% collected is being remelted to make new bottles and jars here in Yorkshire
Every household in Leeds now has a minimum of fortnightly recycling collections, with no reduction in black bin collections
Later this year we're introducing food waste collections using brown bins, with brown bin collections moving to a year-round service
Last year we saw a 15% reduction in flytipping, compared to 1% nationally, thanks to innovations like our accredited waste carrier scheme (the first in the country) and our serious environmental crime team we set up to prosecute serious flytipping offenders
These positive changes and other challenges including around staffing and snow have disrupted the bins service quite a lot in the last few months. So once again, thank you everyone for your patience, and thanks to the workers for all they do.