Driver Shortage Forces Changes to Garden Waste Collections
Published on Friday, 1st October 2021
Maldon District Council has announced changes to its garden waste collection service which have been caused by the current national driver shortage.
The collection of garden waste is not part of the standard refuse or recycling collections, so these changes will affect residents who have signed up for this subscription service.
There will be a two-week suspension of all garden waste collections from 11 October.
From the week commencing 25 October, garden waste collections will resume but will follow the winter schedule, meaning that collections will be made every two weeks on the same day as customer’s refuse collections. Unfortunately, these changes to the garden waste service are not included in the new waste collection calendars, which have already gone to print and are due to be delivered shortly.
This difficult decision has been taken in conjunction with the Council’s refuse and recycling contractor Suez. The service has been impacted by the current national shortage of HGV drivers which has caused short notice cancellations across the service. By taking this action, drivers can be diverted to the household waste, recycling and food collections to avoid disruption for these essential services.
To make up for the missed collections this Autumn, they will be added to the end of the collection year. The annual renewal in 2022 will therefore be delayed until mid-May.
Cllr Wendy Stamp, Leader of Maldon District Council, said “We have all seen the impact of the shortage of drivers and Maldon is unfortunately in the same boat. Cancelling waste or recycling collections at short notice is very disruptive so by taking action now, and diverting drivers, we hope to minimise the impact across the District.
“We apologise to those whose garden waste collections will be affected but hope that the extension to the collection year to May 2022 will help. We encourage everyone to use their bins before the suspension on 11 October and ask you to bear with us during the two-week suspension.
“Our waste and recycling collections are carried out by Suez who are recruiting for both vehicle drivers and loaders in the Maldon area, so encourage anyone interested to apply for those roles and help to fill these current shortages.”
Further information will be made available on the Maldon District Council website at www.maldon.gov.uk.
The Suez vacancies for vehicle drivers and loaders can be found on the Indeed website at
Driver - https://uk.indeed.com/jobs?q=suez&l=co5%209ja&vjk=1cc2541b359ca442
Loader - https://uk.indeed.com/jobs?q=suez&l=co5%209ja&vjk=5f4393341c2426c0
Driver/loader - https://uk.indeed.com/jobs?q=suez&l=co5%209ja&vjk=92288caf3f61cf6a
- More articles in the news archive
- Maldon District Council news RSS feed