Barnsley’s green bin collections suspended due to number of staff self-isolating

Barnsley Council did not give a date for the service to resume.

Councillor Chris Lamb, cabinet member for environment and transport said: “We’ve made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend green bin collections from Tuesday July 27 .

“Like many other councils who are taking this step, we have increasing numbers of staff off work with positive COVID-19 cases and isolations. We’re moving staff from non-essential services to focus emptying general waste and recycling bins.

“If you can, please use our household waste recycling centres to dispose of your green waste.

“We’re anticipating disruption to collections for this week and we’ll re-schedule these as soon as possible over the next few weeks. Our website will be updated with re-scheduled dates and we ask that you leave your bins out.

“This pandemic is far from over, and we’re in a situation where staff absences are the highest since the start of the pandemic. Our staff must follow Government rules and self-isolate to protect themselves, their families and our residents.

“We’re not alone in this position. Many businesses, public services and our neighbouring councils are all dealing with the impact of having a reduced workforce alongside difficulties in getting support from agency workers due to a national shortage of HGV drivers.

“We know that this isn’t ideal and will re-start the green bin collections as soon as possible. We ask for your patience and understanding, and we’ll keep you updated.”

New data revealed that more than 600,000 people in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts from the NHS app between 8 and 15 July.