Hills Municipal Collections and GMB Union have confirmed they have reached an agreement, which means the waste collection strike has now concluded with immediate effect, and kerbside recycling collections will resume as normal from Monday 21 March.
The council's contractor Hills Municipal Collections has confirmed those workers that were on strike will return to work on Friday 18 March. The returning staff will now assist in the recovery of any general waste or garden waste that was not collected due to the service disruption caused by the strike.
Residents are asked to put their blue lidded bins and black boxes out on their scheduled day from Monday 21 March. Due to the recent disruption there may still be slight delays to the collection of recyclable materials due to the higher volumes we expect will be presented at the kerbisde, so if people's recycling containers aren't emptied on their scheduled day they are asked to leave them out, and they will be collected as soon as possible. People will still be able to leave additional recycling that has mounted up during the disruption; they should leave any additional recycling materials in non-black bags or containers (such as plastic crates) next to the recycling bins and the crews will collect them.
Household and garden waste collections will continue as normal and people are asked to put those bins out on their normal scheduled day. If those are not collected as scheduled they will be collected as soon as possible.
Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Waste, said:
We are extremely pleased that this industrial action has now come to an end, and I'm sure residents across the county will echo that sentiment. Our focus now is to get all waste collection services back on track and I'm confident that will happen very quickly. However, there still may be some delays to collections, and any bin not emptied will be done so as soon as possible.
Before the industrial action took place our new collection rounds were running so smoothly, so we're looking forward to picking up where we left off and continuing to provide great services for our residents.
I'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during the industrial action.
In summary, the key things residents need to know are:
- Recycling collection services will resume from Monday 21 March
- People are asked to put out their black box and blue lidded bin on their scheduled day from 21 March
- If recycling bins are not emptied on their scheduled day people are asked to leave them out, and they will be collected as soon as possible
- Any additional recycling materials stockpiled during the disruption will be collected. People are asked to put those items in non-black bags or containers (such as a plastic crate) next to their recycling bins
- Household and garden waste collections continue as normal and people are asked to put those bins out on their normal collection day. There could still be slight delays so people are asked to leave their bins out until collected
- If people aren't sure on when their collection day is, they should visit https://ilforms.wiltshire.gov.uk/WasteCollectionDays/index.
- Updated FAQs can be found at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/rubbish-and-recycling/faq-hills-municipal-collections-industrial-action
