Garden waste collections are set to be temporarily suspended in Hart on Monday owing to bin crew staff absences.
The difficult decision to delay restarting the fortnightly collections after Christmas comes following discussions between waste contractor Serco and Hart District Council. This decision also follows the same announcement made by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council last week.
The suspension will allow the crews to focus on the core waste and recycling services, where there is currently a backlog of collections.
Serco’s Regional Operations Manager James Farquhar said: “Due to staff absences, we are unable to re-commence the garden waste service. We will of course commence this service as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The temporary suspension will take effect from the fortnightly collections due in the week of Monday 17 January and will enable crews to prioritise the 216,000 weekly waste, recycling and clinical waste collections. The staffing situation will be regularly reviewed and the service will restart when the council is confident that Serco can resume a reliable service.
Cllr Alan Oliver, Hart District Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “I was really hoping not to be in this position and that the staffing absence would be resolved in time for Serco to restart the service in Hart next week, however, this is not the case.
I would like to thank the crews for their additional support, by working weekends to minimise the current backlog and I apologise to our garden waste customers for not receiving the service they were expecting.”
For more information on bin collections in Hart visit www.hart.gov.uk/garden-waste or follow @HartCouncil on Twitter or Facebook.