Emergency group to look at green waste plan
DERBYSHIRE Dales District Council’s new Emergency Committee will meet tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss measures that need to be put in place to enable garden waste collections to restart.
Green waste collections have been suspended during the lockdown to enable household waste and recycling collections to be prioritised due to the council’s waste and recycling contractor being impacted by corona-virus-related staffing issues.
The authority says staff resources have been stretched not only by coronavirus shielding and selfisolation, but by social distancing requirements that mean bin crews are having to travel to locations in separate vehicles.
The authority had initially faced a struggle in collecting all kerbside bins and collections were missed for several weeks in some cases, while a strategy was put in place to get back to normal. But while black bin general waste and blue bin recycling waste pick-ups are now back to normal, garden waste collections remain suspended.
In December the council approved plans to start charging £50 for green bin collections, but this was not due to be implemented until after the summer.
A report to next Thursday’s emergency committee has stated that garden waste collections can only restart if the council is prepared to contribute towards the cost of additional agency staff.
The meeting will be broadcast live on the council’s Youtube channel.