Data sources
| Data | Source | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| Postcode to council lookup | postcodes.io, built on ONS Postcode Directory data | Open Government Licence; Royal Mail and OS data © Crown copyright |
| List of 361 councils, names, codes, types and populations (mid-2020 estimates) | mySociety UK local authority names and codes | CC BY 4.0 |
| Council boundaries and maps | Office for National Statistics local authority district boundaries, simplified (via UK-GeoJSON) and OSNI for Northern Ireland | Open Government Licence; contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right |
| 2,976 postcode districts and place names | GeoNames postal code data, matched to council boundaries by us | CC BY 4.0 |
| Council bin day checker links (133 councils) | Council websites, with a starting list from the open-source UKBinCollectionData project | MIT (project); links point to council websites |
| Bank holidays | GOV.UK bank holidays | Open Government Licence |
| Simpler Recycling rules | GOV.UK guidance | Open Government Licence |
Where we match postcode districts and places to councils ourselves, a small number on council borders may be listed under a neighbouring council. The full postcode lookup on each page always uses the official postcode data.
Councils without a direct checker link on our site are linked through the official GOV.UK bin day finder (England and Wales), GOV.UK's local council finder (Scotland) or nidirect (Northern Ireland).