MK Council have confirmed a pause in the collection of food and garden waste due to issues related to the covid pandemic.

The measures have been taken in order to prioritise residual black sack waste and recycling collections, with local suspension in the MK area to start from Monday 26 July and last until further notice.

MK Council confirmed that they have had their waste collection team hit by staffing issues due to illness and isolation, with MK Council declaring that as much as 28% of their waste team have been missing in recent days.

While the council have tried various contingency measures into action to limit the pressure on services, losing high numbers of staff puts the continuity of essential services at risk. These risks have been added to in areas where obtaining cover is already difficult.

In a statement, MK Council said, “We appreciate this is an inconvenience to residents. We’re doing everything that we can, with the support of our partner Serco, to maintain essential services as far as possible in these extreme circumstances and we thank you for continuing to support our crews.

“We hope to have the food and garden waste services restarted quickly and we will provide regular updates, giving as much notice as possible when the service restarts.

“In the meantime, please dispose of food waste into black bags and keep any green waste in your garden. MK’s tips remain open, which you can book in advance at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/hwrc. Black bag waste and clear recycling sacks will continue to be collected on your regular collection days.

“To check your collection day please go visit, www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/waste-recycling”