Doncaster Council delivers an important update on green bin collections

Councillors Neil Gethin and Majid Khan asked the authority for an update as calls grow for collections to resume.

The pair shared the council’s response on Facebook, which said: “We have seen very large increases in waste tonnages for residual and recycling collections, to such an extent that we are collecting more waste than our usual Christmas collections when tonnages are usually at their peak levels.

“This has resulted in our contractor having to divert all their available vehicles and staff onto these collections to ensure continuity of these critical services, which has led to the temporary cessation of green waste collections.

“Green waste collections are a non-statutory service and many local authorities charge residents for this service and as a result only collect from a small percentage of properties.

“Current national guidance places green waste collections as a low priority with residual and recycling collections rated as high priorities, our approach has been fully in line with this.

“We are working with our collection contractor on plans for reinstating the green waste collections service when guidance determines it is safe to do so and when there is sufficient capacity within our resources we will be able to restore the collections as soon as we possibly can.”

Doncaster Council has now re-opened its Household Waste Recycling Centres for people to dispose of rubbish, but all sites are subject to strict social distancing measures.