East Cambridgeshire: Driver shortage leads to missed bin collections

The national shortage of lorry drivers and "unforeseen staff absences" had led to an increase in missed bin collections, a council said.

East Cambridgeshire District Council apologised and said some bins had not been emptied from last week, despite crews working overtime to catch up.

A private recycling company has been employed to cope with the backlog.

The authority said it was recruiting new lorry drivers and training existing staff in order to tackle the issue.

It said a new driver started work on Monday, while another was expected to be on the road within days. An existing driver had also returned from long-term sick leave.

Conservative council leader, Anna Bailey, apologised and said "recently unforeseen staff absences mean we have dramatically fallen short".

"Recent bank holidays have also meant we have been playing catch-up because, while our staff have been happy to work, they have been unable to unload the recycling and refuse trucks at waste management sites," she said.

"I would like to assure residents we are putting in place practical measures to not only address the issue of missed bin collections but also provide greater resilience in the future."

She added that the situation was "not directly related to the recent reconfiguration of our bin rounds" and praised staff for "working extremely hard in very difficult circumstances".

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