Torbay bins getting better

Five additional people hired

Torbay’s bin collection saga could be coming to an end as extra staff start to pick up the pieces.

After being more than 20 collections behind in recent weeks, the council says a large number of rounds have returned to their normal collection day, thanks in part to staff working extra hours over the weekend. 

Nevertheless, some collections are still more than a day behind. “These rounds remain a priority for the teams,” a council spokesperson said. 

The backlog began as covid cases forced many working at SWISCo, the council’s waste collection company, to take time off work.

With few replacement staff on the books, there was not much in the way of backup, leading to delays.

The council says it is on the way to correcting this, having recruited three new drivers and two new loaders. It is still recruiting, with the aim of filling 10 positions at SWISCo.

Covid cases have been extremely high in Torbay in recent weeks. In the most recent complete seven day period (the week to Friday 1 April), 1,312 people in Torbay tested positive for covid, making the infection rate 963 per 100,000, 35 per cent higher than the national average.

Speaking this week [Monday, 4 April] Torbay’s director of public health Dr Lincoln Sergeant, said with far fewer people now testing, cases could be three times higher than reported. 

If Dr Sargeant’s assessment is correct, around one in 30 people in the Bay have recently picked up the virus. As of Wednesday [April 6] SWISCo still had nine staff off-sick, four with covid.

A council spokesperson said: “The position is very fluid and can change very quickly, meaning we are reviewing the service on a daily basis.

“We would like to thank our residents for their ongoing patience and understanding.”

But patience and understanding from residents have run very thin at points. In February, a man who was furious that his bins had not been collected for three weeks dumped his rubbish at the entrance to Torquay’s town hall.