Havering Council: Food Waste Collection Service A Year Behind Schedule.

A separate food-waste collection service will finally be introduced in Havering next autumn, a year behind schedule, writes local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann.

Under legislation from 2021, local authorities across the UK need to introduce a dedicated service by the end of March 2026.

However, delays in delivering new 15 bin lorries mean Havering Council is now eyeing an autumn 2026 rollout.

It was initially slated for October this year.

Councillor Ray Morgon, leader of Havering Council, said in a statement: “Separate food waste collections will mean that scraps and left-over food can be put towards generating something useful such as electricity.

“It is vital we all do what we can to reduce the impact we have on the environment around us, but we need support to do this.”

It will cost the council just shy of £4million to get the scheme off the ground.

It will spend a combined £597,000 on 199,000 new food waste caddies, and a further £884,000 for almost 1,500 bins for communal flats. The 15 new lorries will cost more than £1.5m.

The town hall has received £1.89m from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to offset these bills, but will need to borrow the remaining £1.3m.

“The introduction of a separate food waste collection is something we have to do by law,” Cllr Morgon continued.

“Yet, it is extremely disappointing that we are receiving limited funding from the government to run the service. It doesn’t cover the full costs.

“I have already written to the government about this and we’ll continue to lobby to try and fix this.

“Other councils like ourselves are also in this difficult position as we want to reduce the amount of waste we create and get rid of it in a cleaner and greener way. Yet we have not been given the right funding or support to do this.”

Many borough councils in London will look to introduce new bins and lorries next year, the council says, and the subsequent demand has further contributed to the delays.

Havering will introduce the new service over a period of eight weeks, ending in October, which officers say is the “smoother” approach.

Rolling the scheme out across all 20 wards at the same time, in the space of about one week, could leave “no room for manoeuvre if any operational issues arise

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