Cherwell District Council said it has started the difficult task of catching up with waste and recycling collections.

Normal collections of blue and brown (recycling) bins have recommenced in the north of the district and green (general waste) bins in the south.

A council spokesman said barring any further snow hampering the efforts of crews, all collections timetabled for this week would happen as scheduled.

In addition to this, extra collections are planned as follows to catch up with the backlog of the 50,000 bins:

Green bins

Thursday, December 30 - Hook Norton

Friday, December 31- Adderbury, Milton, Milcombe and Deddington

Blue bins

Thursday, December 30 - Chesterton, Upper Heyford Base and Ardley Friday, December 31 - Southwold Estate, Bicester

The spokesman said bins in the Bretch Hill area of Banbury were collected yesterday. Anyone whose bin has not yet been collected should leave it out until crews reach their area.

He said all collections should be back to the usual schedule next week so any extra waste or recycling left out in a bag next to the relevant bin or box will be collected.

Councillor George Reynolds, Cherwell’s portfolio holder for environment, recreation and health, said: “We apologise to those people whose bins have not yet been collected but we must all be sensible about the situation.

“A fully-laden refuse collection truck weighs up to 26 tonnes and it is just not safe to have them driving along icy streets, particularly those on a hill.

“But now the streets are clearing it is not possible to reach all missed bins simultaneously.

“Our advice is if your bin has not yet been collected, leave it out and we will reach you as quickly as possible. If you’ve extra rubbish, leave it out next to the bin and we will collect that also.”