Garden waste collections in South Hams halt

Residents to take their own rubbish to recycling centres

Residents in South Hams will need to dispose of all their own garden waste after the company contracted by the council to do the job said it needed to stop collections.

FCC Environment asked South Hams District Council if it could suspend garden waste collections from Monday 16 August to focus on general waste and recycling.

Instead, residents have been told to either compost the garden waste or take it themselves to one of the three recycling centres in South Hams operated by Devon County Council. 

The council said it agreed to the request reluctantly but added that many other councils around the country have had to do the same in recent weeks as the national shortage of LGV and HGV drivers continues.

Cllr Keith Baldry, (Lib Dem, Newton & Yealmpton) South Hams executive member for the environment said: “This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but the impact of the national shortage of drivers has meant that FCC Environment has no choice now but to move their resources to ensure they are focused on the vital collections. These are general waste, clinical waste and recycling.

“Therefore drivers that were collecting the garden waste will be redeployed onto the recycling and waste collections.

“As a council, both for members and officers, this has been one of the hardest decisions that we have ever had to make and we know that it will not be popular.  We are also sincerely sorry for the recent disruption to collections.”

FCC Environment also emphasised that this was a national problem and not just an issue in South Hams. 

FCC Environment’s operations director Steve Longdon said: “This is an acute challenge which the waste and recycling industry is facing across the UK, one which has been well documented in the national media and which is also affecting many other industries. 

“We are raising this issue at the highest levels in government to gain support to attract and train new drivers into the sector but this is a long term problem for us all. 

“We are closely monitoring the situation in the South Hams, working in tandem with the council to minimise disruption and apologise to residents for the inconvenience we know this will cause to them.”

But many councillors are disappointed by the decision and suggest that privatising waste services was a mistake.  

Cllr Jacqi Hodgson (Green, Totnes & Dartington) said: “I think the FCC have been given long enough to sort this mess out. And I think South Hams have just got to take the services back in hand.  It’s the only solution I can see that can make sense of this.

“There’s one error being made after another. Other local authorities have been able to get out of their deal, their arrangements with commission services. So I see no reason why South Hams can’t manage to do this.”

But Cllr Hodgson said the more pressing problem was to deal with food waste and the other recycling which “is now attracting rats and flies.” 

“But I could never see how a more comprehensive recycling service with more collections could be delivered at less cost than the one we had. It just didn’t it didn’t add up.”

The suspension is expected to last at least four weeks.

The council explained that, although they would like to be able to collect all waste, including garden waste, FCC Environment know that they must focus all of their resources on the statutory waste and recycling collections. This includes food waste, which can become very unpleasant if not collected in warmer weather.