Council making extra efforts to collect refuse in bad weather
A number of residents will be experiencing delays to their rubbish collections due to problems with the snow.
Extra crews
The Council had hired five additional refuse vehicles and taken on extra staff to catch up with its post Christmas collections.
However the bad weather has severely hampered our efforts to collect both refuse and recycling, with the more remote, hilly areas and some residential streets not safe to drive large and heavy refuse vehicles on.
4x4 vehicles
So that we can access the more difficult to reach areas, two four wheel drive tractors and trailers have been brought in to support our refuse freighters.
We have also redeployed all of our recycling and sweeping staff to refuse collection to try to ensure that residents' rubbish is collected as quickly as possible.Best efforts
Cllr Ellacott, Executive Member for Environment, said: “Reigate & Banstead Borough Council apologises to all residents affected by delays to their refuse and recycling collections.
“Most households have significantly more waste following Christmas, so rounds take longer to complete. We had already, as normal, put on more collection crews in anticipation of this but, the situation has been compounded by the heavy snow which, despite our best efforts, has made it difficult for our refuse freighters to reach certain areas safely.
"We are doing all we can to clear the back-log as quickly as we can. I would like to thank residents for their patience at this time.”
In order to catch up with refuse collection the Council has currently suspended its household recycling collections.
Staff are also concentrating on picking up food waste from commercial premises and emptying recycling banks.
From 11 January
Subject to the weather we hope to commence normal collections from Monday 11 January.
Any residents who have large amounts of waste or recycling materials can place them in bags alongside the appropriate bin or box and they will all be taken on your next collection.
Latest information
We are asking residents to place their wheeled refuse bin and recycling box out on their normal day of collection but to continue to check the updates on the Snow and our services page of the website.
Last updated : 11/02/2010
