A COLIN councillor has reassured residents that he is working with Belfast City Council to address missed bin collections in the Lagmore area over Christmas and New Year.
Sinn Féin councillor Joe Duffy said there had been issues across the city with bin collections over the holiday period regarding staffing and that Council have been unable to fill positions.
"This is unacceptable, especially leaving waste for three or four weeks over the Christmas period,” he said.
“I have told Council that they need to get their act together on this issue but we are also being told that on occasions lorries have broken down or there have been issues with on-street parking so I would ask residents to be mindful of their parking, especially on bin days so that we can do all that we can to ensure that bins are collected.
“We have been working with the Council and we are lucky that we haven’t seen industrial action unlike other councils so we need to address the lack of resources in the Council waste team as they are telling me that they are relying on goodwill from their staff to work overtime but that is unsustainable in the long term.”
A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: “Due to a shortage of drivers there was an impact on some bin collections over the Christmas and New Year period.
“We recognise this is an inconvenience for residents and regret that our service delivery was impacted. We apologise to any residents affected. Work is ongoing to increase the pool of drivers to support the service.
“We would also encourage residents to be mindful of any parked vehicles which may prevent our bin lorries being able to access streets, as this can also result in missed collections.”
