It’s been Wansteadium’s practice on Twelfth Night to refer readers to the excellent Redbridge-i page where one could – with pretty much a single click – place an order for your Christmas tree to be collected from your front garden. It’s always been a great service, and much appreciated by many households.
This year, extra funding was secured by the council to extend the weekly collection of green garden waste to an all-year-round service. (Wansteadium did wonder privately just how much garden rubbish is produced in January and February.) But it seems the move has had an unintended consequence: you can now only have your Christmas tree collected IF IT IS SMALLER THAN 10cm IN DIAMETER and 122cm LONG. Here are the site’s actual words:
Now these are days of austerity, but just how many Christmas trees fit this bill is open to question. None, one would guess. Which means that to be eligible for Christmas tree collection – following this improvement in service – one must take a saw and chop one’s tree into small chunks. If, heaven forfend, the trunk of your tree has a wider diameter than 10cm, then doorstep collection does not from this year seem to be option for you. Instead the council asks you to bring your tree to Chigwell Road Recycling Centre. (It doesn’t say which bus routes serve it, unfortunately.)
UPDATE 2pm:
@Wansteadium Advice sought @RedbridgeLive ! How do residents dispose of Christmas Trees?
— Cllr Paul Canal (@RedbridgeBlue) January 6, 2014
@RedbridgeBlue @Wansteadium Larger trees can be collected but need to be broken into pieces smaller than the size specified on the web
— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 6, 2014
@RedbridgeBlue @Wansteadium I’ve added those details to the website to make that clearer http://t.co/NNTZHzterj
— Redbridge Council (@RedbridgeLive) January 6, 2014
@RedbridgeLive @RedbridgeBlue @Wansteadium smaller than 10cm??? I'm expecting to see trees dumped all over wanstead in that case.
— Miss Cusack (@MissCusack) January 6, 2014
@RedbridgeBlue @RedbridgeLive @Wansteadium only dispose of trees 10cm wide? surely a typo
— comedystart (@Comedystart) January 6, 2014
RT @Comedystart: @RedbridgeBlue @RedbridgeLive @Wansteadium only dispose of trees 10cm wide? surely a typo << No.
— Wansteadium (@Wansteadium) January 6, 2014
. @Wansteadium @Comedystart @RedbridgeBlue @RedbridgeLive But it is working … pic.twitter.com/l8yCXPr8MK
— Barkingside 21 (@Barkingside21) January 6, 2014
A zoo in Cambridge asks for unwanted Christmas trees to entertain their lions http://t.co/40YvCiuxML pic.twitter.com/vgHaW6Oixp
— ITV News (@itvnews) January 6, 2014
Call Redbridge on 8554 5000, to arrange a collection by them. Used to be free,think it still is.
Bus routes don’t help you [even if the tree was allowed on it]
Redbridge website says “Please note at present it is not possible to visit the site on foot due to health and safety reasons.”
If it were me, I’d chop my tree in half and then put it in the green garden waste bags akin to the twitter picture above. And then when it is isn’t collected, report it as a missed collection on Redbridge-I. But then I don’t have a tree, so I wouldn’t do that.
Presumably you will take it to the dump (oops, recycling centre) by car since you probably collected the tree by car in the first place…
Have you never seen people carrying Christmas trees, Bob Cratchit-style, on their shoulder, back to their shivering families?
The guys collected my 6ft tree on Tuesday sans problems.. Great service, thanks !
@planey2k
… Oh, and I carried mine back home.. Purchased it from the nice lady on hermon hill just opposite George lane.. £40.. Lovely stuff
@planey2k
Cut my 7ft tree in half, they took it no questions asked. My next door neighbour left her’s didn’t chop hers at all and it went. No fuss