FOOD and garden waste collections will be suspended due to 'an increased volume' of waste during the Christmas period, West Berkshire Council (WBC) has said.

WBC said it was facing "a difficult January" with increased amounts to collect and a number of staff self-isolating.

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In order to prioritise rubbish and recycling, garden and food collections will be halted from January 18.

The garden waste service will resume on January 29, and residents are asked not to pull their green waste bin out until services can be resumed from February 1.

This change will also affect food waste collections because they are collected at the same time as garden waste.

Councillor Steve Ardagh-Walter, executive member for the Environment at West Berkshire Council, said: "We have received tremendous support from West Berkshire residents over the past few weeks and I want to thank everyone for their understanding during this challenging time.

"We have not taken this decision lightly to put garden and food waste collections on hold and understand that some residents may be disappointed by this service disruption.

"Our aim is that all waste collection services will be able to continue as normal once the service is reinstated by the end of January.

"Our contractor’s collection crews have continued to work hard throughout, keeping our waste services running and we would like to thank them for doing a great job."

At the close of play yesterday (January 12), about 5,300 recycling collections (equivalent to just under 8 per cent of households) remained outstanding.

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The collection of other waste types including general refuse is being completed without any significant disruptions at this time.

If rubbish (black bin) or recycling (boxes and bags) is not collected as expected, residents are asked to continue to leave it out and to be collected as soon as possible.

WBC are also asking residents to avoid calling customer services colleagues, unless necessary, because they are very busy dealing with urgent queries at this time.

You can find out more information on the garden waste service from council's website.

Household waste recycling centres are still open for essential visits but residents need to book an appointment.