Maldon District Council is urging residents to help it fill its current driver shortage, which has led to the temporary suspension of its garden waste collection service.

The service, which is not part of the standard refuse or recycling collections and so will only affect residents who have signed up for it, will be suspended for two weeks from Monday 11 October.

The council has made the decision in conjunction with Suez, its refuse and recycling contractor, as the current national shortage of HGV drivers has caused short notice cancellations across the service.

Councillor Wendy Stamp, the leader of the council, said: "We have all seen the impact of the shortage of drivers and Maldon is unfortunately in the same boat.

"Cancelling waste or recycling collections at short notice is very disruptive so by taking action now, and diverting drivers, we hope to minimise the impact across the district.

"We apologise to those whose garden waste collections will be affected but hope that the extension of the collection year to May 2022 will help.

"We encourage everyone to use their bins before the suspension on 11 October and ask you to bear with us during the two-week suspension.

"Our waste and recycling collections are carried out by Suez who are recruiting for both vehicle drivers and loaders in the Maldon area, so encourage anyone interested to apply for those roles and help to fill these current shortages."

From the week beginning 25 October, garden waste collections will resume but will follow the winter schedule, meaning that collections will be made every two weeks on the same day as customer's refuse collections.

These changes to the garden waste service are not included in the new waste collection calendars, which have already gone to print and are due to be delivered shortly.

The missed collections will be added to the end of the collection year - the annual renewal in 2022 will therefore be delayed until mid-May.

The Suez vacancies for vehicle drivers and loaders can be found on Maldon District Council's website via the link here.

You can access updates on the service using the link here.