Saw this in the Daily Mail today.
It seems that some councils are suspending waste collection for five weeks because it is too dangerous to collect. As the Mail points out, this means:
…many bins still have the remains of Christmas Day dinner rotting inside them.
The areas affected stretch across wide swathes of Britain, including parts of London, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, Hampshire, the Midlands, Bristol, Essex and Hertfordshire.
Councils have suspended services because refuse trucks are unable to make their way up icy streets and many binmen have been diverted to gritting duties instead.
To be fair, if it is just steep hills that are affected then you can see the councils’ concern (and I wouldn’t put it past the Mail to be missing that detail entirely and overstating the problem).
But I also wouldn’t be surprised if some councils use it as an excuse to delay collection. I love that part about staff having been diverted to “gritting duties”, when it is clear that the same councils have cut back on gritting as well (and a second comment on that, here).