Due to the exceptionally hot weather and health alert, we’ve cancelled today's recycling and garden waste collections - we’re really sorry to anyone this affects and thank you in advance for your understanding.

With temperatures forecast to reach 35°C after lunch, we need to ensure our crews have completed their rounds before it becomes too hot to work safely. To do this, our recycling and garden crews are helping on black bin collections, and we've also diverted all the waste collection vehicles we can to help with black bins.

Following national HSE health and safety guidance, keeping safe in the heat is vital for our teams. To help mitigate the impact of the extreme temperatures, our crews started work at 5am this morning. However, they still complete rounds involving long distances walked in full sun, with little shade available, while working at the back of hot collection vehicles. Heat stroke is a real risk, and we need to protect our crews from harm. We are grateful for residents' understanding while we take the necessary steps to keep our teams safe.

We'll update the website later today about what to do about your missed bins and bags.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for supporting our efforts to look after our crews during this period of extreme heat.

We are in contact with all known rough sleepers in the district to encourage them into accommodation during the current weather conditions, as part of our severe weather emergency protocol, which is now active. If you are concerned about a rough sleeper who you feel needs help, please call us on 01543 308000 or outside of office hours call 01527 406643. Find out more about our severe weather emergency protocol.

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