Garden waste collections in Basingstoke and Deane are set to be temporarily suspended once again due to bin crew staff absences.

The decision to delay restarting the fortnightly collections after Christmas comes following discussions between waste contractor Serco and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

This will allow the crews to focus on the core waste and recycling services, where there is currently a backlog of collections from the Christmas and new year period.

It comes after the council suspended garden waste collection on three occassions between July and November 2021, and offered delayed service throughout November.

READ MORE: Garden waste collections to resume next week after more than a month of cancellation

The temporary suspension will take effect from the fortnightly collections due in the week of Monday, January 10. The staffing situation will be regularly reviewed and the service will restart when the council is confident that Serco can resume a reliable service.

Garden waste subscriptions will be extended to cover the missed collections, meaning that service users will get the full number of collections that they have paid for in the year. Real Christmas trees can be disposed of at one of the council’s 22 recycling points.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council’s cabinet member for recycling and waste Cllr Hayley Eachus said: “We are really disappointed to be temporarily suspending the garden waste collections, particularly at a time when many of our customers are looking to use the service to recycle their real Christmas trees, even if they have not been doing much gardening. We are sorry that they are not receiving the service that they expected. We will continue to review the situation and will restart the service as soon as we are able to.

“The crews worked to collect extra waste and recycling over the Christmas and New Year period. However owing to bin crew absences, we have had to suspend the garden waste service to protect the core waste and recycling service until there are enough staff to run both reliably again.”

SEE ALSO: Garden waste collections in Basingstoke take longer than usual as they resume

Serco’s regional operations manager James Farquhar added: “Due to staff absences, we are unable to re-commence the garden waste service. We will of course commence this service as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

For more information on bin collections in Basingstoke and Deane visit www.basingstoke.gov.uk or follow @BasingstokeGov on Twitter or Facebook.

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