The national shortage of lorry drivers has disrupted waste collection in Wokingham, Earley and Woodley.

Wokingham Borough Council will suspend garden waste collections between October 4 and November 1.

The disruption, which has affected contractor Veolia, also means bulky waste collections will be paused for two weeks from October 18 to 31.

“We want to apologise to our residents for any inconvenience this unprecedented national issue is causing,” said executive member for environment Cllr Parry Batth.

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“We are doing everything possible to keep our waste and recycling collections running as normal – we don’t take the suspension of garden waste collections lightly as we know it is an important service to our residents.”

“We have taken the difficult decision to suspend garden waste collections for four weeks and bulky waste collections for two weeks to protect the general rubbish, recycling and food waste collections.”

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The paid-for garden waste subscription period will be extended by four weeks from May 1 to May 29, 2022 to make up for the four-week suspension.

The council is working with Veolia on their HGV driver training and recruitment programmes, incentives schemes for new hires and retention bonuses and lobbying the government to take steps to help resolve the shortage.

Residents looking to book a bulky waste collection will have to check availability after October 31.