GARDEN waste collections will be suspended again later this month.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council have taken the "difficult decision" to suspend the fortnightly subscription service from Monday, August 23.

The authority is blaming the twin effects of crew members having to self-isolate and the national shortage of HGV drivers, and says the decision was necessary to protect waste, recycling and clinical waste collections.

An opposition councillor has now hit out at the council, saying that the borough's waste collection services, contracted out to Serco on an £88 million deal, should have been kept in-house.

The council's website states that many crews have had work with one person less this week, and that "they have done well to get round as many collections as possible".

It continues: "But this is not sustainable. This is a national issue with many local authorities having to prioritise waste and recycling services over other collections."

It means brown garden waste bins, which are usually collected every fortnight, will not be collected in the week commencing August 23.

They were collected this week, but previous collections in the week commencing July 26 were halted after a crew member tested positive for Covid-19.

Subscribers to the service, which pay up to £60 a year, will have their terms extended to make up for the missed collections.

BDBC’s cabinet member for recycling, waste and regulatory services, Cllr Hayley Eachus said: “Due to the number of waste crew members needing to self-isolate and a national shortage of HGV drivers, we have had to take the difficult decision to suspend garden waste collections.

"This will be from the next scheduled collections in the week from Monday 23 August. This is to protect the core household waste, recycling and clinical and healthcare waste collections.

“We hope to be able to resume the garden waste service for the following scheduled collections from Monday 6 September but this will depend on having enough staff available to deliver the service.

"We will be extending garden waste subscriptions for garden waste customers to make up for any missed collections during this period.

“The nature of the current staff shortages makes it difficult to predict which services can be delivered from day to day and we are working closely with our waste collection contractor Serco to minimise disruption to collections as much as possible.

"We hope residents understand why we have had to take this step in a difficult situation, as have other councils, and apologise for the inconvenience this will cause.”

Reacting to the news, Cllr Tony Jones (Labour, South Ham), said that he is unhappy with the service provided throughout the waste contract.

He told The Gazette: "My view is quite simply, and I made it quite clear before we signed any contracts, we should have it in-house.

"We the council, if we had it in-house, could have trained them.

"At the moment it is the garden waste but the rest of the rounds haven't been running properly.

"It comes to a point where you are running a business, and that is what Serco are doing. Are they going to make a profit at the end of the year? I believe so.

"That is one of the problems we have when councils put work out to tender.

"I am not happy at all. As Labour opposition we are not getting the service for our people."

According to reports earlier this week, military personnel are said to be on standby to step in to fill a shortage of HGV drivers if required.

Cllr Jones added that a proper training programme was needed to combat the HGV driver shortage.

"What we don't do in this country is train people enough.

"There are a lot of people out there looking for jobs.

"There is no good training when we are short, we need a training programme."