Icy conditions in the final few weeks of December “really affected our services”, the council says, meaning some residents’ bins went uncollected.
In the week before Christmas, Cllr David Burton, the council’s leader, apologised to residents for the disruption and thanked waste crews for their hard work during “very difficult conditions”.
He added: “Unfortunately the icy conditions have really affected our services, for all of last week our crews were unable to start work as early as they normally would.
“We also had 11 staff reporting injuries from slipping on the ice and need to consider the health and safety of our crews, who do go out in all conditions and as a result lost more than 1,000 working hours.”
The council says it did “all it could” to collect missed bins, including by sending out extra crews across the Kent borough.
However, few residents with missed residual waste collections had their bin emptied until their next planned collection dates, the council says. Instead, they were asked to put any excess waste in secure sacks for collection at the next opportunity.
Health and safety
Waste management company Biffa carries out collections across Maidstone on the council’s behalf. A company spokesperson told letsrecycle.com: “Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our key workers.
Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our key workers– Biffa spokesperson
“During the recent icy weather, our crews in Maidstone started work later than normal to minimise risks.
“Despite our best efforts, there were some slip-related incidents, but thankfully none of them resulted in serious injury. All services are set to return to normal by Monday 9 January.”
Maidstone
Representing an estimated population of more than 155,000, Maidstone borough council had a household waste recycling rate of 49.7% in the 2020/21 financial year.
As the Boxing Day and the New Year bank holidays fell on Mondays, there have been changes to refuse collections affecting all properties in Maidstone for the two weeks to 6 January, the council says. All normal collections are delayed by one day.
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