Although three-quarters of councils now charge for garden waste collections, less than half of council websites provide a good or very good service for this task, a new survey has revealed.

The latest briefing from Socitm’s Better Connected programme found that while 76% of English shire districts now charge to collect garden waste, websites are struggling to relay complex collection services.

Fewer than half (46%) of all sites tested provided a good or very good service.

The briefing suggests that while services that normally involve the collection of money normally work well, charging for garden waste collection is a relatively recent introduction.

It found that some councils were ‘hiding’ the costs of charges on their websites along with other pertinent information about how the service works.

The report said:’ It is possible that embarrassment about charging explains why some councils hide details of costs in pdf documents which may also contain lengthy terms and conditions obscuring the most important detail. This is simply annoying.

‘Charges are best made explicit on web pages, along with headline information about how the service works: collection cycles, how waste should be presented, what won’t be collected, who owns the bin and so on.’

Better Connected said councils should make it really easy to see whether services are paid for, especially when complex systems are in place.