Christmas trees collection delayed in Cornwall

Christmas trees remain on the roadside, 18 days into the new year

Christmas trees have been abandoned on streets after a planned service to collect them was hit by staff being off sick with Covid-19.

Cornwall Council had advised anyone with an unwanted real Christmas tree to leave it out with their usual rubbish in the week beginning 10 January.

They have reportedly been left in many areas with some lying on streets and pavements in Helston and Falmouth.

The council said more than 10,000 trees had been collected.

It said staff had prioritised collecting the usual recycling.

Cornwall councillor Rob Nolan said on Twitter he had been trying to help people who had not had their trees collected and tweeted that there were "still lots left," as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: "Covid absences affected plans to collect Christmas trees last week, but we have collected over 10,000 trees.

"The focus was on ensuring that the main rubbish and recycling collections took place as usual."

They added that garden waste collection subscribers should leave their trees out with the garden waste.

Anyone else can report it as a missed collection on the Cornwall Council website or take their tree to their nearest household waste recycling centre.