A WASTE worker suffered arm and leg injuries when a mechanical sweeper knocked him over at the council’s depot, the Advertiser can reveal.

The incident comes amid fears that bin men in the borough are struggling to cope, with claims that teams are being let down by agency staff who do not turn up.

A probe, launched after a worker was hit by a sweeper at Test Valley Borough Council’s Portway Depot in January, has since resulted in “appropriate management action”, according to the authority.

The investigation established that the employee “was not driving with the required level of care and attention”.

Meanwhile about 150 properties in Picket Piece recently missed a scheduled bin collection, an episode which culminated in workers being stripped of their round duties.

A source told the Advertiser: “There’s bad feeling among some of the workers, especially the older ones, who are simply fed up.

“They’re under a lot of pressure, not helped when agency staff let them down, and they were all told not to say anything about the worker being hit by the street sweeper.”

A spokesman for the borough council said: “We can confirm that an employee was knocked over by a small mechanical sweeper on Saturday, 3 January, 2015 at our Portway Depot, Andover, sustaining minor injuries.

“A full and thorough investigation was carried out and the incident was reported to the Health and Safety Executive. As a result of the investigation, appropriate management action was taken.”

On February 20 about 150 properties in Picket Piece did not receive their normal bin collections.

Our source added: “The workers were so stretched they just couldn’t get round every street. They had no choice but to leave some out and have now been removed from their normal duties.”

TVBC said: “We regret that on Friday, 20 February the residents of Picket Piece did not have their waste collected during the day as would normally be expected.

“Approximately 150 properties were missed in the village as a result of the collection team deciding to alter the order collections would normally be made in.

“Crucially, the team failed to notify their supervisor who could have done something to remedy the problem.

“To ensure residents did not have to wait until the following week for their waste to be collected, a team was put together to empty the bins in Picket Piece on the Friday night.

“We offer a reliable waste collection service to our residents and for a team not to collect waste from 150 properties on a Friday, knowing that there was potentially no way of remedying the situation until Monday, was unacceptable.

“Following an investigation into the incident, a decision was made that the employees responsible would be removed from the frontline round.”

The authority said it used agency staff to cover absences and that the agencies used are “generally very good and there are no issues with agency workers not turning up”.