One free collection can now be booked online for households in the council’s priority neighbourhoods: Oak Tree Lane Estate, Bull Farm Estate, Bellamy Road Estate and parts of Portland ward in Mansfield, and Warsop, Church Warsop, Warsop Vale and Meden Vale.

Households in these areas can have one free collection any time over the next year for up to three standard items, such as beds, mattresses, wardrobes, and bagged waste. Free bulky waste collections across the whole of the district will also be available during the council’s Tidy Together campaign in May and June.

The free collections in the priority neighbourhoods can be booked online in the usual way on the council website via form at https://www.mansfield.gov.uk/xfp/forms with no charge to pay for households with postcodes that qualify.

Residents can also book collections for bulky upholstered seating and bulky electrical and electronic equipment from this link.

Customers will need an email address to create an account on the customer portal to access the booking form. Bookings for people with no access to the internet can also be made by calling 01623 463463.

Paid-for collections remain at £10.80 for one item, £22 for two or three items and £10.80 for each additional item up to a maximum of 10 items until April where there will be some revised prices for this service.

Any electrical items including fridges, freezers, TVs, washing machines, cookers and microwaves need specialist disposal and are charged separately at £17.50 each. This price will also apply to upholstered furniture items from April, too, as the legislation around their disposal has now changed.

The council cannot collect American-style fridge freezers or hazardous waste, including, paint, rubble, tyres, asbestos or gas bottles. However the Household Waste Recycling Centre at Warsop can accept paint which can then be re-used by community groups.

Coun Andy Burgin, portfolio holder for Environment and Leisure, said: “We have introduced free bulky collections in certain areas of the district where there are particular needs, as set out in the corporate plan Making Mansfield: Towards 2030.

“This free collection scheme is aimed at areas which experience higher rates of fly tipping and issues around waste disposal generally.

“Not everyone has a car into which they can pile their unwanted items and take them to the recycling centre for free, or the money to have that old mattress taken away.

“So the mattress can then end up in the garden, or an alleyway, or a country lane and this can create costly environmental health hazards which the council, in turn, has to deal with.

“The temptation is to choose the cheapest option when people have waste to dispose of, but cheapest can also often mean least responsible – that friend of a friend of a friend who has a van, or someone plying for trade in a Facebook group, may not be disposing of your waste properly and could trigger a fine for you if they are caught.

“And then our council, or some other council, has the job of clearing a fly tip because the unlicensed carrier cannot use the proper channels to dispose of the waste so dumps it in a quiet corner of the public highways.

“By offering free collections, we hope to also reduce the cost of dealing with fly tipping and make this district cleaner and greener. The latest figures show that in 2021/22, fly-tipping cost the council £50,508. We were called out to 1,036 fly tips on public roads and spaces.

“Even for people who will still have to pay, the council’s bulky waste service is very reasonably priced and so much better than risking a fly-tipping fine or even a criminal record by using some unscrupulous unregistered carrier.”

The council has a duty to clear fly tips on public land. They can be reported on the council website at https://www.mansfield.gov.uk/report or by calling 01623 463463.