Despite last night's snowfall Central Bedfordshire Council's waste teams are still hoping to continue clearing the backlog of waste that built up during the bad weather last week.

Residents are also still being advised to keep both their black bins and recycling waste out as it will be collected as soon as possible.

Crews have been collecting from homes in priority order, collecting waste from those that have been waiting the longest first. Although most major roads are running smoothly, and the snow is slowly disappearing, some side roads are still icy so crews will have to assess each situation and collect where ever they possibly can. A reasonable number of extra sacks left by the bin will be collected.
 
The crews will also be carrying out a Saturday collection to help clear the backlog as quickly as possible.

Last week Central Bedfordshire Council was forced to suspend all waste collections from Wednesday. The nature of this type of work involves crews stopping and starting and reversing around small residential areas, which means it has been just too dangerous to dispatch our crews on such compacted snow and ice.

Councillor David McVicar, Central Bedfordshire Council's Portfolio Holder for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: "Our waste crews have been very frustrated at not being able to collect waste as normal, but due to heavy snowfall and freezing conditions, we had to think about both the safety of our residents, children playing in the snow and our crews.  Despite the snow fall over night and today, we will still try our best to catch up on some of the backlog and return services to normal.

"Unfortunately we won't be in a position to collect garden waste  until further notice."

Residents with any enquiries about waste collections should check the website www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk and only call customer services unless they have an emergency.