North East Lincolnshire struggles to clear rubbish

Bin collectors in North East Lincolnshire are struggling to clear a backlog of Christmas rubbish, the local council has said.

Not all of this week's scheduled waste and recycling collections had been completed by the end of Friday, North East Lincolnshire Council said.

In a bid to clear the backlog, street cleaning staff will be diverted to waste removal duties on Sunday.

Crews will be out on Monday "to catch up on any outstanding collections".

A council spokesman said the problems had been caused by "the large amounts of waste being put out to be collected".

Second setback

By Tuesday, domestic waste crews will be working as listed in the council's Christmas card advertisement which was sent out to residents in the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham areas.

However, street cleansing and grounds maintenance staff would still be diverted, if required, to ensure that any outstanding backlog of waste was collected, the council said.

During those three days, the community recycling centre sites on Estuary Way, Grimsby and Queens Road, Immingham, will also be open between 0800 GMT and 1800 GMT.

Residents who had not received a kerbside recycling collection by 1600 GMT on Friday 31 December should put out the waste from Tuesday 4 January and it would be cleared by Friday 7 January, the council added.

It is the second time in a month that the council has had to deal with a significant backlog of waste.

It was forced to suspend collections for two weeks just before Christmas as heavy snow and ice made driving conditions hazardous.