The suspension of garden waste collections across Central Bedfordshire will remain in place until further notice. They do not anticipate this service resuming in August, due to ongoing and significant LGV driver shortages.
They would like to apologise for the inconvenience and would like thank all residents impacted by the suspension for their patience and ask them to continue to bear with them, whilst work is undertaken to resolve the disruption. They are asking all residents to not leave their garden waste bins out for collection during this time.
For now, along with their contractor they are continuing to prioritise crews and drivers to focus on the collection of critical household waste such as clinical waste, residual waste (black bin) and dry recycling collections – all of which remain unaffected.
Like many local authorities – both locally and nationally – Central Bedfordshire has been significantly affected by a national shortage of LGV drivers as well as staff needing to self-isolate due to the ongoing pandemic. The result of this labour market pressure, which is affecting the whole economy, means that our waste collection teams have been stretched to the limit. We have been working with our contractors to increase efforts to stabilise crew numbers, to reduce the strain being caused.
Once garden waste collections resume, all residents will be updated on the situation via this link to the garden waste website page.