Bins hit by waste staff shortages

RUBBISH collections in parts of South Devon have been hit once again by Covid-19.

Torbay Council has had to reschedule collections and take on more staff to counter the effects on its workforce of the pandemic.

Now South Hams Council’s garden waste collections have been disrupted again amid “severe” staff shortages. In an open letter to local households, the council’s executive member for the environment has apologised for the problems being faced by FCC Environment, the company which handles the South Hams’ waste.

Cllr Keith Baldry said: “FCC Environment restarted our garden waste collections in March, but unfortunately since the service resumed they have experienced increased sickness within the workforce, which has impacted some of our collection rounds. Of course, this isn’t what we or FCC wanted and we are extremely sorry that the high numbers of FCC staff absent has resulted in some of our garden waste rounds being affected, especially so soon after they resumed.

“I completely understand why our residents may be frustrated, but it is not easy to get agency staff to cover for sickness and

FCC have tried to cover absences where they can. Unfortunately, when there are severe staff shortages, we need to prioritise our statutory services, which are the collection of black bins and recycling.

“We are working closely with FCC to ensure that they try to get back to as many missed collections as possible. However, if your brown bin is not collected on your scheduled day, we are asking you to leave it out until 5pm on the following day. If it still hasn’t been collected, then please take your bin back in and bring it back out on your next collection day.

“We know the situation is difficult and some other councils in the area are also experiencing operational challenges at the moment.

“We are working with FCC on a daily basis to try and ensure we get back to our scheduled collections and to the services that our residents expect and deserve.”