Posted on: Friday 26 August 2022
From this Bank Holiday Monday, Torfaen Council will suspend Garden Waste collections for 2 weeks from Monday 29 August until Friday 9 September.
The decision to suspend garden waste will allow the garden waste vehicles and crews to be used to help the short term recovery of disrupted food and cardboard collections.
Over the next 2 weeks the council will hire 8 small additional vehicles specifically for food and cardboard and will recruit a further 3 drivers and 6 loaders to start work from Monday 12 September.
Cllr Mandy Owen, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “Our food and card collections have been badly disrupted for some time due to unreliable vehicles. The age of the fleet has resulted in lorries frequently breaking down and being off the road as our mechanics struggle to source parts and repair.
“The existing fleet was due to be decommissioned during 2023 but the vehicles are now failing so frequently it is having an adverse effect on a service residents rely on. It is also incurring extra cost to fix the vehicles and affecting staff morale who are working exceptionally hard to play catch up on a daily basis.
“The Council apologises to all our residents who will miss just 1 green been collection but action is needed now. The prolonged dry weather has also seen a significant drop in the amount of garden waste collected so these 2 weeks present a window of opportunity to put the whole service back on an even keel.”
Garden waste collections will resume on Monday 12 September.