Garden waste collections need to be restored as soon as possible to discourage people from starting bonfires at home – and reduce the risk of wild fires breaking out during the current spell of dry weather.
That was the view of Keswick councillors who raised concerns, with firefighters having already had to tackle three separate blazes which spread across open fells in the North Lakes earlier this month.
Allerdale Borough Council has suspended its regular green bin collection service because of the coronavirus crisis, while Cumbria County Council has closed its tips, including the nearest one to Keswick at Flusco. The result is that many people have nowhere to dispose of large amounts of garden waste which can build up at this time of year.
At Keswick Town Council’s latest meeting, Cllr Peter Terry asked if there was any update on when Allerdale’s garden waste service would return. Cllr Sally Lansbury, one of Keswick’s three borough council representatives, said there might be spare capacity because there had been such a drop in Allerdale’s commercial waste collections because of the lockdown.
Cllr Alan Dunn said: “People love their gardens, so wouldn’t it be wonderful during such terrible times if Allerdale maybe once a month rather than once a fortnight could go out of their way to give us a collection. It is not absolutely crucial but so many people, particularly old people, love their gardens at this time of year. They would very much appreciate that.”
However, Cllr Markus Campbell-Savours said there were still health safety issues, even if a less frequent service was to be introduced. He agreed that the current situation posed a danger as for some people “it was tempting to burn waste in the garden,” adding that he had recently received his first report of garden waste being fly-tipped.
He referred to a fire at Thornthwaite on Monday last week being caused by someone burning garden rubbish which spread to the nearby fell. “It is going to happen more and more. We need to try and get a collection restarted,” said the town and borough councillor.
Councillors agreed to take up the matter with Allerdale Borough Council.
Last week, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service had warned people not to light bonfires at home after specialist wildfire crews from Keswick and four other stations tackled an out-of-control garden fire at Thornthwaite which spread to 500 square metres of gorse and open grassland. It took them three hours to extinguish the fire using beaters, water back packs and other specialist wildfire equipment.
Firefighters from Keswick had also attended a wildfire fire at Uldale near Ireby and another covering 800 metres on open fells on Causey Pike in the Newlands Valley this month.
