Liverpool City Council is to temporarily suspend garden waste collections due to a spike in Covid-19 related absences.
The two-week suspension, which will begin on Monday, 19 July, will allow the Council’s waste collection contractor, LSSL, to focus their available staffing resources on the collection of the general waste purple and blue recycling bins.
Waste services are experiencing higher than anticipated staff absence as a result of Covid-19 related cases.
In the last week alone, 26 staff have had to self-isolate either because they have had a positive test or they have been contacted by track and trace. This level of absence on top of current sickness and leave means 24% of the workforce are unavailable.
As well as the temporary suspension, the council is using all available resource including agency and when necessary overtime, to catch up outside of core time and at weekends.
Over the next two weeks, new bubbles will be created, with a focus on staff who have been double jabbed, to ensure normal service can resume on Monday, 2 August.
If residents feel they cannot store green waste during the suspension, they are encouraged to use one of the city’s major recycling centres which are operating as normal.
Councillor Abdul Qadir, Cabinet member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “Unfortunately due Covid guidelines on isolation our refuse service team is severely depleted, and we need to prioritise our waste collections.
“Our current programme is clearly not sustainable when one in four staff are unavailable to work. We know the temporary suspension of collecting garden waste will be an inconvenience but it will allow us to ensure general waste and alleyway cleansing is kept to schedule.
“Our recycling centres are also open late in the summer so residents have an option if they feel they can’t wait for the next green bin cycle.
“After 19 July, the isolation guidelines change for those who have been double jabbed and this two week delay will give us time to re-organise the teams to ensure we can get back on track at the start of August.”
