ALL garden waste collections are to be suspended because the coronavirus outbreak has affected staff.

With pressure highly likely to increase, garden waste collections will be dropped until further notice so that Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) staff can focus on collecting recycling, refuse and clinical waste.

Around 50,000 people pay for garden waste collections and the suspension comes at a time when subscriptions are being renewed.

To make sure customers do not lose out, SWP is extending all subscriptions to take account of the disruption, however long it lasts.

So, if disruption continues until the end of next month, annual subscriptions will last until the end of April 2021.

SWP chairman Cllr Sarah Dyke said: “It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to make this decision and apologise for the inconvenience, but we’ve been able to make sure nobody paying for garden waste collections loses out financially.

“We’re doing our very best to keep services running and hope everyone understands that we have to prioritise those that are most important.”

She appealed to people to take a little extra time to sort through their recycling – putting the right items in the right recycling boxes makes it much quicker for crews to collect. That means rounds can be completed quicker, and staff deployed to help elsewhere.