Council apologises for wave of missed bin collections

A councillor has apologised to residents whose bin collections have been missed due to "driver shortages".

Many households in North Somerset – including those in Weston-super-Mare, Nailsea, Portishead and surrounding areas – have experienced missed collections for recycling and garden waste this summer.

The BBC understands some residents have waited up to three weeks for collections. Recycling is normally collected weekly while garden waste, a paid service, is collected fortnightly.

North Somerset Council's Mark Canniford told BBC Radio Bristol: "We've got to apologise. No one is happy with this scenario, my bins were late this week. Everyone's suffering with the same problem."

Speaking to the BBC, one resident said: "With the gulls, if the rubbish isn't covered properly, it goes all over the road.

"It's awful. And of course, [it's worse] with the hot weather. I don't understand it."

Mr Canniford said it was not an exclusively "North Somerset problem". The UK is currently 20,000 to 40,000 bin lorry drivers short, he said.

He said part of the problem was the high demand for time off during summer.

"It's hot, people want to be on their holidays," he said.

"These were pre-booked a long time ago, then we find we got a shortage. It makes it really difficult."

North Somerset Council is appealing for locals to help drive its bin lorries and said anyone with a HGV licence should contact them.

Mr Canniford said: "You can expect things to go back to normal.

"I'm not saying we won't have these problems again in the future, simply because of the HGV issues, but we're trying to find ways and work around that."

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