The HGV driver shortage has impacted Maldon, where the district council has announced it is about to temporarily suspend garden waste collections.

A statement from the council says: "Due to the national shortage of HGV drivers and in order to safeguard core waste services the Council has made the difficult decision to suspend the garden waste service for two weeks from 11 October.

"Collections will resume week commencing 25 October but the service will move to fortnightly collections and will only be collected on the same day as your refuse.

"As this is a chargeable service, and to ensure that customers receive the same number of collections for the service, the current subscription year will be extended to mid-May 2022.

"Please note that the new annual waste collection calendar has already been printed and therefore cannot be changed to reflect the new collections above.

"We apologise to all our garden waste customers and encourage everyone to present their bins for collection before the suspension starts on 11 October. We thank you for bearing with us."