Residents across Bath and North East Somerset are being warned that they may experience irregular waste collections over the next few days, following delays caused by the ‘exceptional heat’.

Bath & North East Somerset Council said that, due to the hot weather, some of the circuit boards in the compaction units of waste collection vehicles have overheated, reducing the number of vehicles available to collect waste and recycling.

Although the council has hired in extra vehicles, and is said to be ‘making modifications to its fleet to counteract the impact of the high temperatures’, it has warned residents that they may experience disruption to their usual collection service.

As such, residents are being advised to leave their waste and recycling out, in the hopes that it will be ‘collected as soon as possible’. The council has added that collections may be made ‘earlier or later than usual’.

Councillor Martin Veal, cabinet member for community services, said: “Our priority is to ensure waste is not left out longer than necessary. The Waste Management Team are working to resolve the delays as quickly as possible. We ask residents to bear with us.

“This is an issue local authorities across the country are having to deal with during this spell of exceptionally high temperatures. Collections services will return to normal as soon as possible.”

Landfill fire also causing collection delays

This is the second incident to cause waste collection days in Somerset over the last week, after residents in east Somerset saw their collections disrupted following a surface fire at Viridor’s Dimmer Landfill Restoration site.

The fire, which broke out at the site near Castle Cary in southeast Somerset on Friday (27 June), occurred in a landfill cell used for the reception of non-hazardous domestic and trade waste.

South Somerset District Council warned residents that, due to the fire, there could be disruption to some rubbish collections as vehicles were being re-routed to other waste disposal and transfer sites. Castle Cary (Dimmer) recycling site also faced some disruption to ‘give priority for fire service vehicles and ensure safety’.

Residents are still being urged to continue placing out their bins by 7 a.m. even if the bins ‘need to be left out for longer’ for collection.

Any missed kerbside collections should be reported to the district council customer services.

Find out more about the delays to waste collections in Somerset.