The Vale of White Horse District Council today announced that waste and recycling collections in District will return to normal non-holiday collection days from Monday (11 January), subject to the weather not getting worse.
Residents are therefore asked to put waste and recycling out for collection on the days they would normally have scheduled collections on in non-holiday periods.
The decision to return to standard collection dates was taken after prolonged adverse weather caused a significant backlog, meaning that it was no longer possible to run waste and recycling collections to the planned holiday schedule.
It is hoped that collections run as smoothly as possible next week, however in view of the weather forecast for next week problems may still occur with collections in particular areas where access is difficult because of road surface conditions, either because of the risk of damage to property by sliding vehicles or where the health and safety of residents and collection staff may be compromised.
Vale waste contractors Veolia will be sending large waste collection vehicles to clear main roads backed up by smaller street cleaning trucks which should be able to address the less accessible areas.
Householders who live in side roads and less accessible areas are asked to try to get their waste to the nearest clear road on their collection day.
Volumes of waste will be high and resources will be stretched. Priority will be given to waste collections, however green box recycling and brown bin crews will attempt to complete their rounds as best they can. Similarly, the clinical waste collection crew will do their utmost to get round all on their list on the appointed day.
Matt Prosser, Strategic Director for the Vale of White Horse District Council, said: “As a result of the adverse weather the last few weeks have obviously been quite a difficult period in terms of waste collections, not just in the Vale but throughout the country and we would like to express our thanks to our residents for their patience throughout this time.
“Hopefully the conditions will get better over the next few days so that we can begin to collect waste and recycling as normal. By going back to non-holiday collection days, rather than trying to catch up on the original schedule, we should be able to carry out as many collections as possible rather than having to make detours to areas that have had missed collections.”
Residents who are unsure of their standard collection days should see the Vale’s website www.whitehorsedc.gov. or look under Calendar in this website.