Covid leads to bin delays
Refuse workers being forced to self-isolate
STOCKPORT residents have been warned they could face more missed green bin collections if Covid rates continue to force refuse workers to selfisolate.
Coronavirus-related absences disrupted food and garden waste collections throughout June, but council chiefs were hopeful of getting back on track this month.
Measures taken to address the situation included drafting in agency workers and redeploying staff at council contractor Totally Local Company (TLC).
However, bins chief Coun Sheila Bailey has admitted the situation is yet to ‘significantly improve’ and would ultimately be shaped by infection rates in the borough.
Speaking at a full council meeting on Thursday night she said that ‘four or five rounds’ had been missed on Wednesday and ‘several’ more that morning.
She said: “Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of TLC management and extra funding from the council the number of green bin rounds that are missed is not significantly reducing.
“At the current time staff from other service areas continue to be used as much as possible, but this will lead to an inevitable backlog in other public realm areas.
“Stockport is not the only council with these issues and, because of this, the agencies are unable to provide the number of temporary staff needed or to keep those they do manage to employ and train.”
Coun Bailey told the meeting that TLC was continuing to work with trade unions but had not yet seen significant improvements in sickness levels.
The contractor has indicated it expects to see as a ‘substantial return’ of self-isolating crews early next week.
However Covid rates in the borough are continuing to rise, while government advisers are forecasting the country will see ‘a period of extremely high prevalence of infection lasting until at least the end of August’
The potential for yet further disruption was not lost on Coun Bailey.
She added: “There is a note of caution that needs to be heard, because the overall numbers will continue to be shaped by Stockport Covid rates over the next few months.”
Green bins collections in Stockport were stopped altogether at the beginning of the pandemic before a fortnightly service was restored. The usual weekly collection returned from the end of March this year - but was again derailed as Covid hit TLC staff.
But under questioning from Conservative Coun Oliver Johnstone, asked Coun Bailey ruled out a return to less frequent collections.
She said: “The current schedule of bin collection is exactly the same as it was and will remain the same. The temporary interruption there has been is exactly the same as the interruption there was last year.
“The aim is to restore the weekly collections as soon as possible.”
However, she said it should be noted that a ‘huge number’ of green bins were still being collected, despite rounds continuing to be missed.
“These are not the majority and the majority of green bins remain collected on a weekly basis as soon as the staffing situation allows that to happen,” she added.
The meeting of Stockport full council was held at the town hall on Thursday night.