PEOPLE in southern Oxfordshire wanting to get rid of their Christmas trees have to put out their brown gardening bins on the street – even if they are completely empty.

Waste collection chiefs at South Oxfordshire and Vale of White district councils have issued their rules for getting trees picked up after Christmas.

They do not want the trees stuffed into the brown garden waste bins unless they are chopped up.

If they are not chopped up they have to be left outside residents’ homes – but only if the property’s brown bin is next to it, even if there is no actual waste in it.

Waste collectors want to concentrate on extra household waste that is generated over the Christmas period.

Vale and South councils’ spokesman Andy Roberts said: “We ask that customers don’t put whole trees inside the bin because they can often prove difficult for our crews to remove.

“If customers are leaving the tree out whole, we ask them to place them out next to their brown bin, even if the brown bin is empty.

“This is so that crews will know that the tree belongs to a customer of the garden waste service.”

There are no garden waste collections in southern Oxfordshire from next Wednesday to Tuesday, January 3.

The councils say they will collect extra garden waste during the week beginning Monday, March 19.

*In Oxford there will be 17 sites to leave your tree to be chopped up and used in the city’s parks and open spaces.

Sites will include car parks at: Blackbird Leys Park, Bury Knowle Park, Cutteslowe Park and Oatlands Recreation Ground and at Hinksey Park, Meadow Lane Recreation Ground, Alexandra Courts, Green Road, Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre, Manzil Way Gardens, Florence Park, Long Lane, Elizabeth Green, Margaret Road Recreation Ground, South Park, Sunnymead Recreation Ground and Atkyns Road, Wood Farm.