CHelmsford City Council
Clearly Communicating garden waste changes
Client: Chelmsford City Council
Sector: Public Sector (Local Government)
Date: Spring 2025
Services: Copywriting, Design, Social Media
The brief:
It’s tougher than ever for the public sector to run everything on a tight budget, and many councils are slimming down their non-statutory services.
Some 65% of local authorities in England now charge for garden waste collection. Chelmsford City Council held out for a long time, but in spring 2025 it became one of the last councils in Essex to introduce a yearly fee.
With discounts for households on council tax support and lower prices if you have two bins, the challenge was twofold:
let all residents know about the changes over winter, so nobody was caught out when gardening season began
be transparent about the reasons for the decision
The audience, of course, was all gardeners in Chelmsford. The city is quite green, with a growing population of 182,000 which skews slightly older and less diverse than the average for England. It’s generally affluent but has very high housing prices which are inaccessible for many. Some 99.4% of the population speak English well or very well.
What we delivered:
A leaflet to every household, designed accessibly and written in plain English
Graphics and copy for use on Facebook, Instagram, X and Nextdoor
A web banner for the council’s 'City Life’ newssite
A set of posters for display on council-owned ad boards
Design files for elements so the in-house team could continue the campaign year on year
Campaign overview
Nobody likes extra fees, especially during a cost of living crisis. The council didn’t want to charge for garden waste and the public didn’t want to be charged. The campaign needed to create a bridge of understanding.
Research showed that councils which simply introduced a charge and told people about it saw a backlash. Not surprising. It was important to explain the decision - and to give people alternatives, so they didn’t feel they were being forced to pay. Honesty was the way forward.
The whole campaign was centred around this, with bright graphics that expressed the joy of gardening, clear copy that still expressed the full story, and information about composting and other alternative ways of getting rid of garden waste.
The city council’s brand palette and main logo was combined with the Love Your Chelmsford sub-brand, a well-established mark used locally for green campaigns and environmental volunteering.
We at Entangled care really deeply about helping people to understand local democracy - it’s a big part of why we work with local authorities. If you know how your council works, and you know the facts, you’re empowered.
Chelmsford are fully on board with this ethos and we worked together to make sure the leaflet wasn’t just about garden waste : it also told the story of how public services are funded and what’s happened to them over the last two decades.
“Gardening is a good thing to do – it keeps you active, connects you to nature, and
can provide food. We’d rather not charge, and Chelmsford City Council is one of the
last Essex councils to ask for garden waste payment, but times are difficult. Councils
all over the country are having to prune which services they offer free of charge.”
