Council services - winter changes

Our Bishop's Stortford office will be open as normal until 2pm on Wednesday 24 December, and phones available until 4pm before we close.

Our customer services team will be available on Monday 29 December and Tuesday 30 December from 9am to 5pm, and on Wednesday 31 December from 9am-4pm by calling 01279 655261 (our offices will not be open for face-to-face appointments during this time.)

Our online services will continue to be available throughout the festive period.

If you need to contact us in an emergency (such as homelessness), call 01279 655261 and follow the out of hours information, or find more information on our website.

There will be changes to bin collection days between Thursday 25 December and Saturday 19 January. See full details of the changes here. 

Make sure your bins or waste containers are on the boundary of your property by 6.30am on the day of your collection.

You can check your bin collection day and which bin(s) to put out on our website or by downloading our council app where you can also set up handy notifications and receive updates in the event of any adverse weather conditions disrupting collections.

Please note there will be no garden waste collections between 25 December and 9 January. If you are signed up for garden waste collections, you can leave real Christmas trees out for collection when services resume from Saturday 10 January.

There will be no garden waste collections between Thursday 25 December and Friday 9 January 2026. We will be collecting garden waste from Saturday 10 January 2026.

If you are a garden waste subscriber, you can leave your real Christmas tree out for collection when services resume.

• Remove all decorations, lights, stands or pots
• Leave your Christmas trees on the edge of your property on your garden waste day, in or next to your garden waste wheelie bin
• Trees taller than six feet should be chopped up to reduce the height
• Tree trunk girth should be no more than 10cm
• Branches should be no more than 3cm in diameter

Alternatively, you can take Christmas trees to your local Recycling Centre.

Remember that any additional recycling can be placed next to your recycling bins in a cardboard or plastic box before 6.30am on your collection day. You can also take items to your nearest recycling centre.

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