Swindon: Thousands of bin collections missed over summer

Thousands of bin collections have been missed and delayed over the summer.

In Swindon, 10,000 households per day, equating to just under a third of daily collections, were affected when the problem was at its peak.

New drivers have been hired and Swindon Borough Council said it is working to create a hybrid loader-driver role.

Councillor Jake Chandler accused the administration of being "reactive, not proactive and at the start passive and not treating this as an emergency".

Speaking at a council meeting on Monday night, Councillor Chris Watts said: "There have been three factors that have caused the increase in dropped.

"The fleet of lorries is right at the end of its life. There have been breakdowns, there have been times where a truck hasn't even got out of the yard and there have been two calls to the fire brigade in the last three or four weeks.

"There has also been a shortage of drivers - there are some on long-term sick and in the summer holidays there have been more drivers off.

"The third issue is budgetary; it would cost £1,000 a day to hire trucks to plug the gaps and we don't have that sort of money," he added.

Councillor Dale Heenan asked Councillor Rob Brown, the officer in charge of the service, if collections should have been suspended to create a firebreak, like in 2022.

However, there were concerns that a firebreak would create more issues and increase the backlog.

Mr Brown said: "My perception is that the vast majority of households have had their rubbish and recycling collected either on the day or the day after.

"And that doesn't put us at the point of needing a firebreak."

Council bosses hope the problem will ease as the summer holidays end and new bin lorries and practices come into operation.

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