It will be business as usual for waste services when the new Somerset Council comes into effect next month.

From the start of April, the new council takes on responsibility for all the county’s waste services, including the 350,000 weekly kerbside collections and 16 recycling sites.

All the councils in Somerset have worked together on waste services as the Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) since 2007, so residents should not notice the change.

The contractors making collections and running recycling sites will continue to do so. Behind the scenes, the SWP team will become part of the new council.

Waste services will continue to have their own @somersetwaste accounts on Facebook and Twitter, and the dedicated SORTED monthly e-newsletter will carry on providing the latest service news and useful advice.

There will, however, be changes to the waste website presence and customer contact.

All the content currently on the SWP website will move to a dedicated section of the Somerset Council website www.somerset.gov.uk/waste from Saturday 1 April.

The www.somersetwaste.gov.uk website will be no more, but anyone trying to visit should be redirected to the new site.

Residents will still be able to do all the same things online that they can do now, including ordering containers, subscribing to the garden waste service, reporting missed collections, and checking collections days.

A single phone number, 0300 123 2224, will replace district contact numbers and will be taking calls about waste services from the start of April. Our new email address for waste related enquiries is wasteservices@somerset.gov.uk

The SWP name and branding will be going as waste services become a part of Somerset Council. Some things will change immediately, such as the social media branding, while others will change over time, like vehicle branding and signage.

This is an exciting new era and we look forward to continuing to help people waste less and recycle more as a key service within the new Somerset Council.