The Essex-based authority outlined that this will apply to all bin collection it undertakes, including household, garden and trade waste collections.
The council put this down to an “administrative issue which has meant our operator’s licence has been revoked”, adding that it is a “legal requirement to hold an operator’s licence and we are unable to collect your waste until the issue is resolved”.
Further details were not provided by the council, except for the fact that “there has been no incident with the safety of our vehicles or their operation”. It has been suggested that the issue is down to the departure of a transport manager who left last year and has not been replaced, though this is not yet confirmed.
A timeline for how long the disruption will last has not been given, but the council said it will issue an update soon.
The Traffic Commissioner has been contacted for comment.
We continue to work with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner
- Uttlesford district council
‘Apologise’
A spokesperson for the council said: “We continue to work with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner to rectify this as quickly as possible and will provide an update later today. We will provide information on our plan to catch up these missed collections, along with those missed yesterday (Wednesday 24 January), as soon as we are able.
“Once again, we would like to sincerely apologise for this situation. We do appreciate residents and businesses rely on our bin collection services and we are doing everything we can to ensure our vehicles get back out on the road as soon as possible.”
Service
The council has been run by the Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) party since 2019 and serves around 90,000 residents.
It recorded a 51.8% recycling rate in 2021/22 and runs an in-house service.
That is an absolute catastrophe