Sickness causes delays to Greenwich & Bexley bins collections

Both councils have reported shortages amongst staff meaning teams are currently behind on collections, and have asked residents to bear with them whilst they catch up.

In Bexley, collections have been delayed this week due to sickness amongst the Serco staff responsible for waste and recycling.

Areas currently affected include parts of Bexley, Bexleyheath, Sidcup and Welling, and the delays may also hit Belvedere, Crayford, Erith and Thamesmead.

The council said they "apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

Residents who have been missed are advised to keep their bin out for collection as your collection may be in the late afternoon or early evening, and Serco are aiming for the service to be back to normal and delayed collections caught up with by the end of the weekend.

Similar scenes have been seen in Greenwich, with the council's waste team failing to empty everyone's black waste bins due to staff shortages.

The delays started on Tuesday, November 17, and collection teams have since been working to catch up but as of Friday, they were still behind on both blue and black top bins.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">📣 We are still behind on some of our blue and black top bin collections and we will be catching up today and over the weekend. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. <br>Thank you for your understanding during this time. <a href="https://t.co/mgHn9EaFuu">pic.twitter.com/mgHn9EaFuu</a></p>— Royal Greenwich (@Royal_Greenwich) <a href="https://twitter.com/Royal_Greenwich/status/1329737585355350016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 20, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"We will be catching up today and over the weekend. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and please bear with us while we catch up.

"Thank you for your understanding during this time."