Our town's bin collectors do a wonderful job. But it has not been an easy year for Middlewich-based contractors ANSA Environmental Services, who collect waste in Macclesfield for Cheshire East Council.

While there will always been incidents of roads not having their bins collected for a myriad of reasons, 2021 has provided challenging circumstances.

COVID-cases, extreme weather and the HGV drivers shortage have all had an impact on how well they can do their job.

So with three bins per household to collect with limited resources in trying times, this has unfortunately led to hundreds of missed bin collections on Macclesfield streets.

A Macclesfield Nub News Freedom of Information request has revealed there were 806 incidents of streets having bins not being collected when they were supposed to in Macclesfield.

May had the least missed bin collections with just 66 instances where a grey, black or green bin couldn't be collected on time.

But then for the next five months, the amount of times streets in Macclesfield didn't have their bins collected was in the triple figures.

There was 125 missed household waste collections on Macclesfield streets in June, and 143 in July.

There was a slight decline in August to 100 incidents of streets with missed bin collections in Macclesfield, but then the problem reached the peak of 159 in September 2021.

It was then when Macclesfield Nub News began to report on missed bin collections across Macclesfield and Cheshire East.

It was also in this month when the HGV driver crisis was cited as a reason for the increasing missing bin collections.

Thankfully, the peak of September 2021 has not been seen again, as incidents of streets in Macc with missed collections fell by 29 to 130 cases in October 2021.

And as of November 26 2021, there was just 83 cases of streets in Silktown being reported as a missed bin collection. This is the lowest figure since May 2021.

The two-month decline suggests that the HGV driver shortage could at least be sorted on a local level for our town's hard-working trash collectors.

It appears the powers that be have got a grip on the rubbish issue. Macclesfield Nub News approached Cheshire East Council and ANSA for comment.

Judging from their response, it appears that staff from outside of our area have come in to help fix the problems, and help reduce the amount of incidents of waste piling up on Macclesfield streets from these missed collections.

Councillor Mick Warren, chair of Cheshire East Council's environment and communities committee, said: "Each day across Cheshire East our crews collect around 50,000 bins and, since the outbreak of the pandemic, have continued to work extremely hard to maintain our full waste collection services.

"However, despite all our efforts, we have faced increasing pressures on our ability to complete some collection rounds, and to return to collect bins that have been missed or that have not been collected as scheduled due to being unable to access a road because of factors including bad weather and road closures."

The Macclesfield East Independent added: "We acknowledge that this has meant that some residents have not received the same level of service as usual, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

"Unfortunately, until the situation eases, disruption may continue, and we would like to thank residents for their ongoing patience."

It is important to note that missed bin collections is not a uniquely Macclesfield problem in these times, but it is great to inform our town that our area has a grip on the once-perceived crisis.

The Macclesfield Brook Street resident added: "The challenges we are facing are not unique to Cheshire East and are due to the impact of a national shortage of HGV drivers and factors including covid-related staff sickness and self-isolation, together with an increase in the amount of waste produced by households."

"However, to try and reduce the impact on our residents, we are continuing to prioritise black bin collections and Ansa staff and colleagues from within other Ansa service areas are also being utilised, when available, to try and complete any outstanding work.

"We also have an ongoing programme for upskilling refuse loaders to drive HGVs and are currently waiting for more DVLA test slots to become available.

"Residents can keep up to date with information about bin collections by following @CheshireEast on Twitter or downloading the 'Waste Watchers' app on their mobile device.

"Further information about the job opportunities currently available with Ansa can be found at ansa.co.uk."

Specific numbers of staff were not provided.

Macclesfield: Please click here to learn more about Cheshire East's waste services.

See also: Macclesfield: Here's when your bins will be collected this Christmas.

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