Waverley Borough Council's waste contractor, like many others around the country, has been dealing with challenges due to the national HGV driver shortage.
With the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the Winter flu season, both now also causing staff absences, the council is warning residents to expect possible bin delays leading up to Christmas and is asking for their continued support and patience.
In October, The Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimated that the shortfall in HGV drivers now stands at over 100,000 nationally, mainly due to a backlog in HGV driver testing due to COVID-19 and there has been no improvement.
Waverley has fared better than most councils affected with HGV driver shortages, with services being maintained since temporarily suspending its garden waste in January at the height of the pandemic. Where residents have experienced delays to any collections, the council aims to collect bins within a day or so of their usual collection.
Councillor Steve Williams, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability, said:
“Waverley, like many other councils across the UK, but also many national companies, continues to face challenges due to the national HGV driver shortages and ongoing sickness absences due to COVID-19.
“On top of this, with the winter flu season now also upon us, we expect a difficult period leading up to Christmas and would ask residents to please be patient; the support they have shown during this difficult time has been much appreciated by us and our bin crews. Our contractor, Biffa, has been working hard to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and the driver shortages in Waverley. We would ask residents to please continue their efforts in reducing or reusing waste and composting as this helps both our bin crews and the environment.”
The council would like to ask residents that if their bin has not been collected, to please leave it out and Biffa will collect it as soon as possible. In addition, if your bin collection day is a Friday and it has not been collected, please leave it out as our waste contractors will endeavour to collect on the Saturday.
Any waste collection disruptions are updated on the council’s website.
Regular updates are also posted on our social media - NextDoor, Facebook: @WaverleyBC, Twitter: @WaverleyBC, Instagram: @waverley_bc.