Residents are being advised of changes to Cherwell District Council’s bin collections and opening times over the festive period.

Only bins due to be emptied on a Friday will be affected by the Christmas break, with those due to be emptied on Friday, 25 December (Christmas Day) taking place four days earlier on Monday, 21 December.

The following week, collections due on Friday, 1 January (New Year’s Day) will also take place four days earlier on Monday, 28 December. All other collections will take place as normal.

Cllr Debbie Pickford, Cherwell’s lead member for clean and green, said: “We want to get the message out early about the two changes to our bin collections over the festive break. On the whole, the majority of collections will take place as normal but on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day we will be giving our crews a well-deserved rest.

“With so much additional rubbish generated over the Christmas period we would urge residents to make a note of the changes now so they remember to put their bins out in advance of their usual collection day. Much of the Christmas waste, such as packaging, wrapping and boxes can be recycled and crews will happily take extra recycling for the blue bin if it is left contained in cardboard boxes next to the bin.”

Cherwell’s offices at Bodicote House and Link Points in Banbury, Bicester and Kidlington will operate normal opening hours up to and including Wednesday, 23 December, when they will close at 5.15pm. All of the offices will then be closed from Thursday, 24 December until Monday, 28 December inclusive.

Normal service will resume on Tuesday, 29 December and Wednesday, 30 December but the offices will close early at 4pm on Thursday, 31 December (New Year’s Eve) and remain closed on Friday, 1 January (New Year’s Day) for the Bank Holiday and over the weekend. Normal service will then resume across all of Cherwell’s offices from 8.45am on Monday, 4 January.

During the office closures online services can still be accessed at www.cherwell.gov.uk and the emergency out of hours number will still be available on 01295 221531.