Terms and conditions
This contract is between the individual customer (“you”, “your”) who has applied to receive, and paid the subscription fee for Cherwell District Council’s annual Garden Waste Collection Service (the “Service”), and Cherwell District Council (“our”, “us”, “we”). It sets out the terms and conditions under which you may use the Service. The Service can only be provided to properties located within the Cherwell district.
The service period and the fee
1. The Service runs for a period of 12 months from 1 March to the last day of February the following year. The Service will commence on the next schedule collection day after you sign up for the Service. If you sign up to the Service on your scheduled collection day then we will start the Service on the following scheduled collection day.
2. The annual subscription will be published on our website (the “Fee”). The Fee will be reviewed annually in accordance with our fees and charges policy.
3. We will not refund any part of the subscription fee in any circumstances.
4. The Service applies in respect of each garden waste bin (the “Bin”) which shall be collected on a fortnightly basis. We can provide you with more than one Bin if you request more subscriptions. We publish the prices for additional subscriptions on our website. We reserve the right to refuse to provide any subscriptions where we consider that commercial activity is taking place.
5. The Service will not be provided until you have paid the fee in full. Payment of the Fee can be made online or through our Customer Service team via a credit or debit card. We accept cash payments only in exceptional circumstances and you must contact our Customer Service team who will determine whether to accept a cash payment or not.
6. The Service does not automatically renew. If you wish to continue to use the Service each year, you will need to pay an annual subscription fee.
Cancelling the service or moving house
7. If you no longer require, please contact us. You will not receive any refund if you cancel subscription to the Service.
8. If you move from your property to another property within the Cherwell District, please contact us so your subscription licence can move to your new property. We cannot provide the service outside of the Cherwell District.
9. We reserve the right to enter your property to remove the Bin when the Service ends for whatever reason.
Using the Service and Collection
10. We will provide bin(s) to you if there is not one at your property when you subscribe to the service and we have received payment. The bin(s) will remain our property throughout the Service. We will repair or replace damaged bin(s) free of charge. We cannot guarantee that you will receive a new bin(s) when you sign up to the Service, but we will ensure that the bin(s) is in a serviceable condition. We aim to provide the bin within 10 working days of you subscribing to the Service, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
11. We will provide you with a subscription licence label(s) to attach to the bin(s) for each year that you subscribe to the Service. You must ensure that you attach the subscription licence label(s) to the bin(s) in accordance with our instructions. If our collection crew cannot see your subscription licence label, then the collection crew may undertake additional checks to ensure a valid subscription is in place. They may also not empty your bin if a subscription is not found on their in-cab system.
12. We will only collect garden waste from the bin(s) which we have provided to you. We will not collect garden waste from any other container(s). We will not collect garden waste from a bin which is overflowing such as the lid of the bin cannot be fully closed, or a bin which is too heavy for our collection crew to safely handle. In such circumstances you will need to remove some of the waste from the bin before the next scheduled collection day in order that we can collect it.
13. We will only collect loose garden waste from the bin(s). This includes matter we collect as listed on our website and in our information booklets. If we consider the bin to contain matter which we cannot collect, then we will not collect it and we will place a “contamination hanger” on the bin. You will then be responsible for removing contamination or disposing of the waste in the bin yourself. If we regularly find that the bin has been contaminated, we will contact you to offer advice. If we find that the bin continues to be contaminated, then we will suspend the service to you and may remove the bin.
14. The bin(s) must be presented at the kerbside by 7am on the scheduled collection day. If the bin is not presented by this time, not clearly visible and/or not accessible then the bin will not be collected, and we will not return to collect the bin until the following scheduled collection day. Our collection crews will not enter on to private property to collect the bin, unless you are entitled to an assisted collection service under our policies for other waste.
15. We will not be responsible for any costs which you may incur in disposing of any waste via a third party in any circumstances.
16. If you correctly presented the bin and we have not collected it, then please report this to us within three days. We will then try to rearrange a collection as soon as possible.
17. We may postpone the Service over Christmas, New Year or other Bank Holiday periods. We may also change scheduled collection days from time to time. We will publish all such rescheduled collection details on our website.
18. We accept no liability for any damages or loss, incurred by you, resulting from the use or misuse of the bin.
19. We cannot guarantee that the service will operate during times of particularly inclement weather, however, you should still present the bin on your scheduled collection day and we will try to collect it once the weather improves.
20. If the content of the bin has frozen, such that it is not possible to fully empty it, then we will collect any remaining waste on the next scheduled collection day.
21. If we are unable to access your road and are therefore unable to collect the Bin then we will try again the following working day. If we are still unable to access your road then we will not collect the Bin until the next scheduled collection day.
22. By using this Service you are complying with your Duty Of Care for the removal of garden waste in accordance with section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Personal data
23. We will hold and process your personal data in order to provide this Service to you. In agreeing to this Service, you are also giving us permission to process your personal data and to share it with third parties in order to provide this Service to you. We will ensure that we comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation in processing your personal data. More information about how we use your personal data can be found in our privacy policy and privacy notice on our website.
24. You must inform us of any changes to your personal data.
Changes to these terms and conditions
25. We will publicise all changes to these terms and conditions on our website. We will not make any major changes to these terms and conditions during an annual subscription period, unless we are required to do so by law.