I understand from residents that recycling was not collected in Podsmead again this week. Several collections have been missed in the last few months.

The council and its street care partner Urbaser are saying that problems are due to driver shortages. The way they are dealing with this currently is by only collecting the black bin waste, and in certain weeks not collecting the recycling. Food waste should always be collected.

The trouble with this is that residents are not often aware this is happening and present their recycling in the usual way. When it is not collected they don’t know whether to bring it in or leave it out.

I will be raising this issue with city council bosses to find out why this is still happening and how we can solve it. I am concerned that Podsmead seems to be bearing the brunt of this problem.

Current advice is to take your recycling back in if not collected by the close of play on Friday. As always, do let me know any issues with waste, recycling or anything else.