A CONSULTATION survey will be released to the public to have their say on recycling in the district.

Cotswold District Council will be launching the survey on Monday (July 2) to gather views about the sort of waste/recycling service that is the best fit for the district and also the county as a whole.

The council service provider Ubico Ltd needs to replace its existing fleet of kerbside collection vehicles during 2019 as the current ones will be at the end of their life.

Improvements in technology should mean that the new vehicles will offer smarter and more efficient ways of collecting recycling and we are seeking the views of residents to help us maximise the benefits of these advances.

Cllr Sue Coakley, CDC cabinet member for environment, said: “We have a great opportunity to improve our kerbside waste and recycling services in line with the needs of people across the district.

"We plan to gather customer feedback on the current service and suggestions for improvement.

"This will enable us to come up with new ways to deliver the service so that we can reduce the amount of residual waste going to landfill and increase recycling. "The introduction of a better system will also help us keep down the cost of council tax.”

The survey will be available on the CDC website and will run until the end of Friday July 20.

The district council will be working with parish and town councils to publicise the survey with a view to capturing as many responses as possible.

With the continued housing growth across the district, CDC is also reviewing collection rounds so that the new vehicles can be used as efficiently as possible.

This could involve changes to some collection days as part of the introduction of the new service.

Cllr Coakley added: “There have been significant changes to the distribution of housing in some parts of the district over the last decade.

"We altered several rounds in 2016 to accommodate those changes and the optimisation exercise went very smoothly, thanks to the support of residents.

"The distribution of recently built and planned housing continues to affect the make-up of waste and recycling collection rounds and we believe there is scope for further route alterations to increase efficiency.

"It is probable that this will result in changes to some collection days. When this occurs, we will again ensure that everyone is fully informed and understands the new collection arrangements.”