East Hants District Council

Latest News

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Changes to bin collections over Christmas and New Year

Over the Christmas and New Year period 2023-24, bin collections will change around the bank holidays.

If your collection would have been due on Monday 25 December (Christmas Day) it will be collected two days earlier on the Saturday (23 December). All other collections will be a day later.

Usual day – New day

Mon 25 Dec – Sat 23 Dec
Tue 26 Dec – Wed 27 Dec
Wed 27 Dec – Thu 28 Dec
Thu 28 Dec – Fri 29 Dec
Fri 29 Dec – Sat 30 Dec

Mon 1 Jan – Tue 2 Jan
Tue 2 Jan – Wed 3 Jan
Wed 3 Dec – Thu 4 Jan
Thu 4 Dec – Fri 5 Jan
Fri 5 Dec – Sat 6 Jan

Our garden waste service will be suspended from 25 December and restart on Monday 8 January 2024. If you have a real Christmas tree, we’ll collect it then. Trees over 6ft tall should be cut into smaller pieces that can be lifted by one person.

If you don’t have your October 2023 to September 2024 bin calendar, visit our ‘find your bin calendar’ page.

Find your bin calendar

Proposed increase in parking fees and council charges approved by Cabinet

The increase mirrors the rise in inflation over the last six years and will now be considered by Full Council

EHDC’s Cabinet has approved plans to increase car parking charges in East Hampshire for the first time in six years.

The proposals will now be put to Full Council to consider on Thursday 30 November.

If approved, parking charges will increase by an average of 26.7%, in line with inflation since the last increase. Most other fees and charges are set to go up by around 10%.

The income raised by the move would fund vital front-line services and safeguard the long-term financial security of the council.

EHDC currently charges for parking in Petersfield and Alton only, with the rest of the district’s car parks being free.

The council has protected the district’s communities throughout Covid and the cost-of-living crisis by consciously taking the decision not to increase parking charges since 2017.

Increasing non-statutory fees and charges, which includes things like pre application planning advice and a garden waste collection service, are part of the council’s long-term strategic plan to ensure it has a robust financial strategy for the next five years so it can protect front-line services.

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East Hampshire Rural Business Network update

Would you like to a help a local charitable organisation?

East Hampshire's strength is the charitable organisations and voluntary communities which hold the social fabric of the district together.

As a business owner or employee in a local business, if you would like to get more involved in local endeavours or would like to know how to provide support to charitable organisations, please email business@easthants.gov.uk.

Get in touch today

Health and wellbeing in the workplace

East Hampshire District Council is working with the Public Health Team at Hampshire County Council - who are looking for workplaces to partner with to tackle cardiovascular disease rates in Hampshire.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths globally, with 4 out of 5 cardiovascular disease deaths being due to Stroke or Heart Attack. The easiest way of knowing your risk of cardiovascular disease is by knowing your blood pressure. This takes just a couple of minutes and yet nearly 1 in 3 adults living with high blood pressure do not know they have it.

The Public Health team at Hampshire County Council are looking to support workplaces. This could be with:

Blood pressure monitors and training for 'Blood Pressure Champions' who can set up blood pressure events for testing at their workplaces
Discounts for blood pressure monitors
Face to face training and awareness for staff

Resources for sharing with staff on the importance of Knowing Your Numbers

We are happy to hear what works best alongside what you already put on for staff wellbeing. At the same time, we are also happy to hear if you have any ideas of what else could work from your experience.

If you are interested with working with the public health team, please contact business@easthants.gov.uk for an Expression of Interest form.

Get in touch today

Talk to us about business sustainability

East Hampshire District Council would like to help businesses become more sustainable, and would like to hear from you about what would be useful.

Please assist us in building this support journey by answering a few short questions.

This survey takes less than five minutes to complete.

Take the survey

Bordon event - multiply

The Careers and Enterprise Company launch its employer standards

The Employer Standards for careers education provides a rigorous framework that enables businesses to understand what good careers education outreach looks like.

Self-assessing against the framework will enable you to plan and structure engagement, ask the right questions, connect, and share peer expertise and engage effectively with young people in schools, special schools, and colleges. It will also allow you to benchmark yourself against others and access resources to support your progress.

Register for a free self-assessment

Learn how to get investment ready with Enterprise Nation

Thursday 7 December 2023 10-11:45am online

Securing investment for your start-up can be a daunting task. However, with the right strategic approach, your venture can stand out and attract the attention of potential investors.

Join this free business.connected webinar to understand when is the right time to raise equity investment and what different types of investors look for in a start-up.

Register for free

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Up to £5,000 available to support community composting projects in the district

Hampshire County Council’s Waste Prevention Community Grant fund is currently open for applications.

Find out more

This fund has been set up to help kickstart or expand projects which reduce household waste and provide benefits to the local community.

Projects must demonstrate that they meet a range of criteria (which can be found on the website), with priority given to supporting community composting projects in the district.

Grants will be awarded up to £5,000. There is no minimum amount.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 12 January 2024.

The following types of organisations can apply:

Community, neighbourhood, or voluntary groups
Registered charities
Schools, colleges, and universities
Not-for-profit organisations (including social enterprises)
Businesses with less than 250 employees
Faith groups delivering community work
Parish councils

Find out more on the Hampshire County Council website.

Big news from East Hampshire District Council

Consultation on EHDC's Local List for Validation of Planning Applications

Our local validation list sets out the information applicants need to submit in support of their planning applications.

Government guidance requires that councils review their lists at least every two years and our list has undergone a review.

The changes we are proposing aim to better reflect national and local planning policies, legislation and other guidance.

The main changes that are proposed are as follows:

Amendments to relevant sections to make the requirements clearer and updating the references to current legislation and guidance
Additional requirements include nutrient neutrality, biodiversity net gain, viability assessments and climate change adaptation and mitigation
Website references have been updated and added where necessary

The Consultation Process

The proposed Local List is open to public consultation for six weeks from Monday 6 November 2023 until 5pm on Sunday 17 December 2023. You may comment upon the draft list by email to planninginfo@easthants.gov.uk

After the consultation period, East Hampshire District Council will consider all the comments received and amend the Local List as appropriate. Once finalised, this will replace the current Local List and will form the basis on which planning applications are deemed valid by the council.

Please note that personal information provided will be processed in line with our Service Privacy Notice.

See the consultation documents

EHDC decides market offers better pest control options

We are constantly challenging ourselves to make sure the services we deliver meet the needs of our customers.

As result of the number of pest control services available on the open market we have taken the decision to stop offering a paid-for pest control treatment service.

We take an evidence-based approach to making decisions and when looking at this service we found that the number of customers is dwindling while the pest control industry has expanded to provide many competitive alternatives.

Councils have a statutory duty to keep the district free from rats and mice, and we will continue to ensure that this is the case, but will not provide a treatment service itself.

The service has been paid for by customers who choose to use it. In recent years there has been an expansion in the industry and the council no longer needs to provide a service that is being catered for by the market and does not want to compete with local businesses in this area.

Competition within the market is fierce and dedicated pest control companies offer very competitive prices alongside other services. EHDC’s market share is small and should not compete with market leaders within the private sector.

On average, 400 pest control treatments are undertaken on an annual basis by EHDC (Jan 2021 to Jan 2022) and this number has been steadily dwindling, which means it is not financially viable to continue running it. So rather than support the service with funds taken from the taxpayer we have taken the decision to stop this service.

Cllr Angela Glass, EHDC’s Portfolio Holder for Regulation & Enforcement, said: “We constantly review how we deliver our services and challenge what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

“Our pest control service is not financially viable, and it can be delivered very effectively and at a lower cost by the market.

“We will obviously continue to uphold our statutory duty to keep the district free from rats and mice, but providing this service ourselves is not the solution.”

The service will stop on 1 January 2024.

New bin calendars available on our website

Bin calendars for October 2023 to September 2024 are now available to download from our website.

Find your calendar

Collection changes over Christmas and New Year

Refuse, recycling and glass collections will change over the Christmas and New Year period. These are marked in orange on your calendar.

Collections due on Monday 25 December will be collected two days earlier on Saturday 23 December. Collections due from Tuesday 26 December to Friday 5 January 2024 will be a day later than normal (including Saturdays). Normal collections will resume on Monday 8 January 2024.

There are no other changes to collections for bank holidays.

Garden waste collections will be suspended from Monday 25 December 2023 to Friday 5 January 2024 with normal collections resuming on Monday 8 January. We will take real Christmas trees on the first collection of the new year.

And more information for East Hampshire businesses

Big news from East Hampshire District Council

Be quick to snap up our speed cameras

Groups can apply for hi-tech speed cameras bought by EHDC

Speeding car

Some of East Hampshire’s most dangerous roads could soon come under the watchful eye of a new wave of hi-tech speed cameras.

Parish councils and community groups have been applying for Speedwatch cameras, provided for free by East Hampshire District Council.

The cameras share the data they record with the police and help authorities put the brakes on dangerous drivers.

Speeding is an issue in towns and villages across the district, so we are offering 20 sets of cameras to help communities fight back against speeding motorists.

The scheme is one of 12 welfare projects launched this April and funded by £350,000 set aside in this year’s budget.

Cllr Tony Costigan, EHDC Cabinet member, is driving the project. He said: “There is almost nowhere in East Hampshire that doesn’t suffer with cars driving at dangerously high speeds along quiet residential roads.

“They are putting themselves and other road users at risk.

“These cameras can help stop this by identifying hotspots and giving the police the information they need to keep our roads safe.”

The discreet, solar-powered cameras will record data on traffic speeds and vehicle movements to help build up an accurate picture of which roads suffer the worst speeding.

They come in sets of three, taking an average speed from passing cars, and registering number plates, times of high traffic and other related information.

The data can then be shared with the police, giving them a clear idea of when traffic speeds are highest, when traffic is heaviest and who the serial offenders are.

EHDC’s role will be to fund the cameras, but local communities will liaise with the police and Hampshire County Council on how to use the data collected and where cameras should be positioned.

The Speedwatch camera scheme was announced in February by EHDC Leader Cllr Richard Millard as one of 12 new welfare projects funded by £350,000.

Originally the scheme provided for ten camera systems, but the initial interest was so strong that Cllr Millard doubled the number to twenty.

Cllr Millard said: “Speeding on our roads is a serious threat to residents and many people feel there are roads in their neighbourhoods where cars regularly go too fast.

“I am not surprised there is such high demand for these cameras and I was happy to double to the number we are making available.”

To apply for a camera set, or to find out more information, please contact natalie.meagher@easthants.gov.uk

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You’re just popping out to the bin with a ‘be right back’ but if you’re contaminating your recycling the nightmare may just be about to begin.

Contaminating (putting stuff that can’t be recycled here into your recycling bin) could mean that your recycling (and everything else in the back of the bin lorry) can’t be recycled and is disposed of with other waste.

Last year, we collected about 7,300 tonnes of recycling and almost 17% of it was things that could not be recycled. That's 1,241 tonnes (roughly the weight of 150 tyrannosaurus rexes) that has to be sifted out and sent to be burned for power.

The prime suspects are:

Zombie pizza boxes

They may look sort-of clean, but grease and stuck-on cheese makes takeaway pizza boxes un-recyclable. They can also infect other paper and cardboard making them un-recyclable too.

Put them in your refuse (green) bin.

Ghost plastics

At the moment we can only recycle bottle-shaped plastics. If it’s not a bottle, it can haunt the bin lorry when it goes to the tip, making it unrecyclable. If it’s not a bottle, don’t put it in.

Put them in your refuse (green) bin.

The Tetrapak Trap

The Tetrapak trap

Tetrapak packaging can’t be recycled in Hampshire so don’t fall into the trap of putting it in your black bin.

Tetrapak should go in your refuse (green) bin.

Be the hero!

To be the hero of the story, find out what can (and can’t) go in your bins on our website.

Find out more