Rotting food uncollected as CEC refuse teams hit by staff shortage

Rotting food has been left in garden waste bins in parts of Cheshire East where fortnightly collections have been missed because of a lack of staff, writes Belinda Ryan.

Cllr Rachel Bailey (Audlem, Con) has called on the council’s audit and governance committee to look at how waste food is collected and how the scheme operates to see if anything can be done.

The former council leader said she had heard from a number of residents in her ward about missed collections.

Now she wants to know how many other areas have been impacted because of staffing difficulties.

Stressing that she was not criticising the waste collection staff who are over-stretched, Cllr Bailey said: “I am aware that these teams are struggling with the garden waste and food collections.

“And I am aware of the worry that it’s posing to residents where food is in the brown bin [garden waste bin] for longer than the decreed fortnight.

“Residents are very concerned they have rotting food in their bins.”

Cllr Bailey said when the idea of collecting food waste was first discussed by the council there were concerns about what would happen if the fortnightly collections were missed.

As the service had now been operating 18 months ,it would be timely to review how it was working, she added.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, Cllr Bailey said the missed waste collections had been caused by workers having to self-isolate and the lack of drivers.

“I want to check Cheshire East has got its policy right and that we’re being fair to our residents and our operators,” she said.

Cheshire East introduced food waste collection in January of last year.

Only residents with gardens can take part in the scheme as the food is collected in the garden waste bin.