Residents told to put grey bins out until emptied

Residents whose rubbish has not been collected due to strikes should put out their grey bins across four days next week until they are emptied, a council has said.

Refuse workers in South Tyneside, who are members of the GMB and Unite unions, have walked out until Friday over allegations of bullying and mismanagement.

Teams are due to return to work next week, but due to an ongoing work to rule the local council has asked people to only put out their household waste.

It said the bins should be left outside between Tuesday, 30 January and Friday, 2 February, until they are emptied.

The Labour-run council said it would prioritise those grey bins that were missed last Friday, after an entire day of collections was missed.

It said its customer contact centre is "experiencing a high volume of calls" relating to the industrial action and bin collection arrangements.

"We understand how frustrating and challenging the situation is for all our residents and we are working hard to mitigate the impact of the strikes as much as we can," a spokesperson added.

“We are well aware of the concerns relating to the build-up of general waste due to grey household bins being repeatedly missed by strike action. General waste does present a greater public health risk."

This is the fourth time refuse collection workers have taken industrial action, after strikes in November and December.

The recycling village at Middlefields Industrial Estate, South Shields, remains open and additional slots have been made available, the council said.

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