Row over recycling in North East Lincolnshire as council suspends collections for two weeks

A political row has broken out in North East Lincolnshire after the council suspended recycling collections for two weeks due to staffing issues.

The halting of collections until Monday 14 August is to allow workers to catch up on a backlog of domestic waste and brown bins for garden waste.

The council apologised for the impact on residents and said it would work quickly to resolve the issues and get collections back on track.

But in an open letter to the leader of the Council, Leader of the Labour Group Councillor Kath Wheatley said: "the inconvenience caused by this suspension cannot be overstated. Our residents now face the challenge of storing their recyclable waste at home or the hassle of transporting it to a community recycling site.

"This additional burden may dissuade some from recycling altogether, compounding the negative impact on our recycling rates.

"I must express my concern that this situation seems to have arisen under your leadership. The onus is on you to provide a full explanation for this situation."

In response, Council Leader Philip Jackson said: "We won’t take any lessons from Labour on bin collections. When the Conservatives took control of the Council in 2019, the waste and recycling collection service was inefficient and unreliable with abysmally low recycling rates. We had to literally clear up Labour’s mess."

He explained that recently loading staff had "unexpectedly changed their well-established working practices without notifying the council."

He added: "This has resulted in slower collection times and delays in the service and has, unfortunately, necessitated us suspending dry recycling collections until this coming Friday, 11 August, though domestic waste bins and garden waste bins are being emptied as normal."

On Friday 4 August, North East Lincolnshire Council said in an update that domestic and garden waste collections were almost up to date.