A CONSERVATIVE councillor has hit back at the 'shambolic' decision to suspend garden waste collections.

South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils announced that bin crews will be prioritising the collection of food waste, recycling and general waste collections following government guidelines in a bid to reduce the disruption to waste collections.

The district council said that the disruption is due to the ongoing issues of a shortage of HGV drivers who are needed to drive the councils’ waste collection vehicles and an increasing number of waste collection staff being advised to self-isolate by the government’s Track and Trace system.

The leader of the Vale Conservative Group Simon Howell sent an open letter to the leader of Vale of White Horse District Council Emily Smith, after residents were concerned they would not be reimbursed the money they have paid for their waste collection.

Read also: Garden waste collection suspended in South Oxfordshire

Mr Howell called the decision to suspend the garden waste collection 'shambolic'. He said: "What are they supposed to do now with bins full of rotting grass and green vegetation? Advice of taking it to local recycling centres would cause more damage to the environment in a climate emergency, and many would be unable to empty their bins to do so."

He added: "Residents have paid a significantly increased charge for an annual service this year, yet they are not receiving that service. With this, residents in some areas did not receive collection for over two months at the start of the year, and now another month. Therefore, I urge you to ensure that a three month 'free' period is offered to all residents who have paid for this service. It is disingenuous to hide behind small print to provide 20 collections. People pay and expect an annual service every two weeks and you and your administration are falling woefully short of that service provision."

The councillor has called for the district council to collect all the 'full bins' that have been left out for collection and to provide a rebate or free period for all residents who are not receiving the service they have paid for.

In response to residents' concerns over the suspension of the garden waste collection the district council said: "We are confident that we can honour our commitment to provide a minimum of 20 collections a year for this paid for service.

"In normal years, we provide more collections than this partly thanks to our extra-large garden waste collections in the Spring and Autumn. We don’t envisage this year being any different, so nobody should be out of pocket."

Adding: "It’s always our intention to give people as much notice as possible, however on Monday morning insufficient drivers were available to provide our full waste service. We therefore had to activate the business continuity plan. This meant suspending our garden waste service at short notice to prioritise everyone’s food waste, recycling, and rubbish collections and we communicated this change to residents as soon as possible.

"We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and we are working hard with Biffa to try and resolve these issues and reinstate the service as soon as possible."

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