Residents are being asked for their continued support and understanding as brown bin garden waste collections will be temporarily suspended next week.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has confirmed that a number of staff are continuing to self-isolate, in line with public health guidance in response to the coronavirus, and collection crews are being deployed to ensure that grey household waste and blue recycling waste collections can be prioritised. It means that this is the second week that garden waste bins will be temporarily suspended in the city.
Council leader Abi Brown said: “We are working hard to support our frontline staff as they continue to follow the national public health guidance in response to the coronavirus. We’re pleased to say that a number of staff who were ‘pinged’ last week are now completing their self-isolation period and are safe and well, but we still have a number of other staff who will be isolating during next week. We are making sure that they are all ok. Our binmen are residents in the city, just like the rest of us, and we know that many other people who have had to self-isolate will understand how unsettling and trying it is.
“We ask for residents’ continued understanding at this time. We are working to ensure that we are able to staff and continue to keep grey and blue bin collections operating next week. We can’t thank residents enough for the support they have given to our brilliant binmen, it was so heartening to see how communities came together to show their appreciation during the previous lockdowns.
“We ask that residents keep their garden waste bins in next week while we continue to work through this.”
Council collection crews empty around 155,000 bins from houses in every part of the city, every week. A total of 65,000 grey bins are collected each week, alongside 46,000 blue bins. Around 44,000 brown bin collections take place each week between April and October, and these collections will be temporarily suspended again next week. Residents in Bentilee, Blurton, Dresden, Fenton, Longton, Meir, Meir Park, Normacot, Trentham and Weston Coyney who were due to have their brown bin collected next week are asked to not put their bins out. If needed, residents can use their grey bins for grass cuttings, weeds, garden plant waste – where the excess soil has been removed, small branches, hedge trimmings, food waste, bones, teabags and coffee grounds. Grey bins must not be used for soil, compost and rubble.
Councillor Brown said: “We’d like to stress to residents that we haven’t taken this decision lightly; we know that many people are using their gardens at the moment and generating garden waste. But like many other authorities, we have a shortage of drivers and refuse loaders which means we are unable to provide this service as usual. We want to limit the disruption as much as possible, which is why we are redirecting our staff and resources to keep household waste and recycling collections going.
“We’d like to thank all residents for their patience, and thank staff for their continued hard work during this challenging time.”
The city council’s Household Waste Recycling Centres at Hanford and at Federation Road, Burslem remain open and will accept garden waste. To check their opening times, along with latest information on waste collections, please visit: https://www.stoke.gov.uk/info/20002/rubbish_and_recycling.
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