Garden and Food Waste Temporarily Suspended

Issued on: 20 July 2021.

Like many other local authorities across the country, our waste collection services have been under increasing pressure due to the number of collection operatives self-isolating and the current national HGV driver shortage. 

This has unfortunately impacted parts of our waste collection services meaning we have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend garden and food waste collections to prioritise rubbish and recycling. By suspending the garden waste collection service, we can ensure that your rubbish (black bin) and recycling (green boxes and bag) continue to be collected as scheduled.

The garden and food waste collection service will be suspended between Tuesday 20 July and Monday 2 August 2021. We are asking residents whose garden waste is due for collection during this time to not put their green bin out until the service can be resumed again on Tuesday 3 August. 

Our collection crews have been working hard to maintain waste services throughout the pandemic and we have worked closely with our contractor to ensure all other options have been exhausted before suspending this service for a short period.  The limited number of staff still able to work are doing their best to keep these essential services going, but as you can imagine that has been made more difficult with the very hot weather we've been experiencing.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter, Executive Member for the Environment at West Berkshire Council, said:

"We have not taken the decision to put garden and food waste collections on hold lightly, and understand that some residents may be frustrated by this service disruption.

"To help residents further, we will be making more slots available for booking at our recycling centres and will allow residents who need more than one booking a week to do so using our online booking system. We are grateful for your continued support and understanding"

You will not lose out as a result of the service suspension, because we will collect additional garden waste on our next collection. Up to three open-topped bags (no larger than a 50 litre bin bag each) of excess garden waste can be collected as well as your bin on a one-off basis. We do appreciate there will be an inconvenience in storing this, and as an alternative it can also be taken to one of our recycling centres.

You can find out more information on the temporary suspension of the garden and food waste service online where you can read some helpful FAQs.

We apologise for the inconvenience and are grateful for your patience as we work to manage this disruption to the service.

Please do continue checking back on our website and social media channel for any further updates.