Lewes refuse and recycling update

I received the following update from Andy Bryce, head of Lewes District Council's waste and recycling department, today:

Almost all staff have turned up for work, with very few exceptions
where people have not been able to get out of their local areas.

Refuse collection: Hazardous conditions with snow on top of ice haveresulted in us calling off collections today. We lost a vehicle
yesterday into a ditch in Barcombe (photos attached). The vehicle was stationary when it started to slip and ended up in the ditch. Nobody was hurt and we expect limited damage to the vehicle because it was so slow
moving, however, we are unable to recover the vehicle as yet because the
recovery company felt it was too hazardous.

We aim to try to catch up with the refuse work by having the crews work
on Saturday and this is currently being worked on. This will, of course,
also be weather dependent but we are very aware that the worst hit
areas, generally on slopes on back roads, will potentially have had a
number of missed collections. We would ask people in these areas, where they are able to do so, to bring their rubbish to the nearest passable
main road where we may be able to collect.

Kerbside Recycling collections have also been suspended today for the same reasons. Our aim is for staff to work through doing extra hours
over the next week and a half to catch up. We would ask residents to
still keep putting their boxes out, or to leave them out if it will not
cause problems, so that we can come back to get them where we can.

Street Sweepers are out and doing path clearing in the main town
centres to assist the Highways Authority where possible. There is too
much work for too few people but we are doing what we can.

The Recycling Centre is open and operating but HGVs are not out
working. We are looking to see if we can do some catch-up work over the
weekend.

Vehicle Workshops. All staff are in and working and so two MOTs and
servicing work will not be held up thus avoiding additional problems
later on.

Again we apologise for any inconvenience.
Kind Regards
Andy Bryce

Andy's team did a great job keeping up with collections in the run up to Christmas, and I know they'll continue to do the best possible in the conditions.