Bins, the tip, bus fares, the tram, renting and who to ring — straight answers with verified numbers.
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Straight answers to the things people in Leeds actually ask — bins, the tip, buses, renting, and who to ring when something goes wrong.
Use the bin-day lookup on this site — type your postcode, pick your address, and it reads Leeds City Council's own service for your real collection dates. You can add an email reminder for the evening before. Collection days vary street by street, so an address lookup is the only reliable answer.
Leeds uses three bins: black for general waste, green for recycling (glass goes in there too, and so does plastic film), and brown for garden waste. If your bin gets missed, report it to the council — but wait until after 5pm on collection day, because crews run until then.
No to both — the council said so publicly on 27 January 2026 after rumours spread. The three-bin system stays, and no new fines are being introduced.
What is happening is a food-waste trial, running through 2026 around Wetherby: Wetherby itself, Collingham, Boston Spa, Thorp Arch, Clifford, Bramham and Walton. Households in it got a free kitchen caddy and put food scraps in the brown bin with the garden waste, and their brown bins are collected fortnightly all year instead of pausing over winter. That area was chosen because it is nearest the plant that processes the mixed load.
The council's stated aim is a weekly food-waste collection for every Leeds household by 2029/30, in stages, using the brown bins it already has rather than a fourth bin — so for most of the city nothing changes yet.
No. Some out-of-date websites still say Leeds tips need a booked appointment — they don't. Arrive by car or on a bicycle at any of the eight household waste recycling centres and you just turn up: Kirkstall, Meanwood, Middleton, Otley (Ellar Ghyll), Pudsey, Seacroft, Wetherby (Thorp Arch) or Yeadon. There is no pedestrian access — these are working sites with lorries moving around.
Four things catch people out, and the "Is the tip open?" tool on this site has the detail site by site. Hours are shorter in winter: 8am to 4pm from 26 October, against 8am to 6pm in summer, and the barrier shuts 15 minutes before closing. Fridges and freezers are not being accepted anywhere in Leeds at the moment, because of a national shortage of processing capacity. A van, a pickup or a trailer needs a free permit first. And Otley takes far less than the other seven — no furniture, mattresses, paint, chemicals, televisions or tyres.
Small amounts of DIY waste — rubble, plasterboard, soil, ceramics — are free, and have been since January 2024, but capped at four visits a month per household with either two 50-litre bags or one item up to 2m by 0.75m. Tyres are limited to four a visit. Asbestos goes to Kirkstall only, booked 48 hours ahead.
Single fares across West Yorkshire are capped under the Mayor's Fares scheme — £2.50 a single, £6 for a day ticket, set on 30 March 2025 and still the published price.
For now the buses are run by private companies — mostly First Bus in Leeds — so a complaint about a specific service goes to the operator. That changes in May 2027, when the first routes move under public control as the Weaver Network. The first contracts were signed in September 2026: First West Yorkshire will run the services out of the Bramley depot in west Leeds and out of Huddersfield, and Transdev Blazefield the Dewsbury depot. By late 2028 every bus in West Yorkshire should be franchised, and service complaints then land with the Combined Authority. The Transport Changes tool on this site tracks it.
Honest answer: it's planned, it's funded in stages, and the dates slipped again in December 2025. The current proposal is two lines — St James's Hospital through the city centre to White Rose, and Leeds to Bradford. The mayor's pledge to get 'spades in the ground' on early works by 2028 still stands, and the government has put £200m behind the planning work to 2027. But after a review said the business case must be finished before planning work, the official opening moved from the mid-2030s to the late 2030s.
What is due next is paperwork, not a consultation. The Strategic Outline Case goes to government later in 2026, an Outline Business Case follows if that is approved, and the next public say on the routes comes only after government has approved both. Leeds has watched Supertram (cancelled 2005) and the trolleybus (cancelled 2016) get this far before, so scepticism is reasonable — the Transport Changes tool on this site keeps the dates in one place.
Since 1 May 2026, 'no-fault' Section 21 evictions are abolished and fixed-term tenancies have become rolling (periodic) ones — your landlord now needs a legal ground to end your tenancy, and rent rises follow a set process you can challenge.
If you get an eviction notice or a sudden rent increase, get advice before doing anything: Citizens Advice Leeds on 0808 278 7878, weekdays 9–5, or the council's help-for-private-tenants pages on leeds.gov.uk.
Leeds Housing Options: 0113 222 4412, Monday to Friday 9am–4pm (from 10am on Tuesdays). Call as early as you can — the council can do far more before you lose your home than after.
Outside office hours, the emergency line is 0113 378 8366. If you're worried about someone sleeping rough, ring the street outreach team on 0113 245 9445.
Use the NHS 'Find a dentist' search (nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist) and phone practices marked as taking new NHS patients — availability changes weekly, and in a city the size of Leeds places do open up, so it's worth ringing several.
For urgent dental problems when you don't have a dentist, call NHS 111 — they can book urgent dental slots directly.
Sign up free at gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings — warnings come by phone, text or email for your specific area. The Flood Watch tool on this site shows what's in force around Leeds right now, plus live river levels on the Aire and the becks.
During a flood, Floodline is 0345 988 1188. If water threatens life, call 999.
Citizens Advice Leeds is free and confidential: 0808 278 7878, Monday to Friday 9–5, for benefits, debt, housing and work problems. For energy bills specifically, their Energy Affordability line covers West Yorkshire on 0800 448 0721.
For food, Leeds has two Trussell foodbank networks — Leeds South & East and Leeds North & West. Both work on referrals; their websites explain how to get a voucher quickly, and Citizens Advice can refer you too.