• Waste & recycling
  • Asbestos
    
  • Beacon award
    
  • Cess pools, pits and septic tanks
    
  • Household waste
    
  • Litter picking/community clear up events
    
  • Recycling
    
  • Trade waste
    
  • Waste strategy
    

• Bin collection & recycling

• Business

• Community and living

• Council and democracy

• Council tax, benefits and finance

• Housing

• Job vacancies

• Learning and education

• Leisure and culture

• Pay my bill

• Policing and public safety

• Social care and health

• Transport and streets

• Useful links

Health & Environmental Services

Tel: 03450 450 063

Fax: 01954 713149
Email to contact:
Health & Environmental services (This link will open in a new window)
Refuse service (This link will open in a new window)

Environmental FAQs

• How do I report an abandoned vehicle?
• What should I do if I find a stray dog?
• How do I find out about private land ownership?
• How do I complain about a nuisance?

• More environmental FAQs

Cess Pools, Pits and Septic Tanks

Due to the high operational cost of running the Cess Pool and Septic Tank service, increased competition and diminishing demand for the service, it has been decided to end the provision of this service by South Cambridgeshire District Council from 1st January 2009.

There are many private sector companies advertising for the provision of this service. These organisations need to be registered carriers of waste and have a license to discharge effluent with the water company. They also need to provide you with a waste transfer note (also known as a 'Duty of Care').

You also have this legal duty of care to ensure that your waste is disposed off properly. Should something untoward happen and you cannot establish who took your waste and where it was supposed to go then you could be fined for a breach of this duty of care. It is therefore necessary for you to obtain and keep this waste transfer note ('Duty of Care').

In order to assist you with your choice of service provider we placed an advert on a Government website and the following organisations have responded. At the time of writing I can confirm that these organisations have provided copies of these licences. We cannot offer or imply any guarantee with regards to quality of service or price and this has to be something for you to assess.

As already mentioned there are other contractors who are able to supply a septic tank service, however you would need to check to confirm these contractors are correctly licensed.

Companies responding to our advert and have supplied copies of licenses as of December 2008 are:

Travers Environmental Services: 01992 892637

Cleansing Services Group: 01622 885845 (contact: Clare Dymott, or in her absence: Chloe Howell)

IWJS: 01359 242606

How to care for your system

• conserve water
• use detergents sparingly
• don't flush sanitary items or nappies into the septic tank/cesspool
• check your bathroom cleaning products are safe to use with a septic tank
• if your washing machine drains into your tank, try to use a liquid detergent.