Maldon District Council has been forced to suspend its garden waste collections for the second week in a row due to staff testing positive for Covid-19.

The service will remain suspended for the rest of the week as drivers for the council's contractor, Suez UK, remain off sick with Covid.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Due to driver sickness, including multiple positive cases of Covid-19, we have suspended garden waste collections for the rest of this week.

"We appreciate how frustrating this will be to hear for users of the Garden Waste Collection Service and please ask you to bear with us while this is resolved.

"Our contractor SUEZ UK is working quickly to resume normal service so please bear with us."

The ongoing suspension follows the council's announcement last Wednesday (16 March) that garden waste collections would be suspended for the rest of that week due to drivers testing positive for Covid.

Garden waste collection is not part of the standard refuse and recycling collections, so the suspension will only affect residents who have signed up for the subscription service.

In October, the service was suspended for two weeks due to the national shortage of HGV drivers.

The collection year, and annual renewal, was extended to May this year to make up for the missed collections.

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