NEW Forest District Council has announced that it is unable to recommence its garden waste collection services due to “continued staff shortages”.

A council spokesperson said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We are continuing to monitor staffing levels and are actively seeking to recruit additional staff.

“It is vital that we continue our essential services, including general waste and recycling, which is why we’ve had to prioritise these.

“On July 19, we took the difficult service decision to stop collecting garden waste as we did not have enough staff across all our waste collection services.

“At that time, we said this suspension would be for a minimum of four weeks. Due to continued staff shortages, we are unable to recommence our garden waste collections on August 16.”

It also confirmed that the shortage of drivers is not a result of Covid isolation and that they are recruiting and working with agencies.

The authority urged residents to continue to compost garden waste or take it to one of Hampshire County Council’s tips.

It will continue to roll the garden waste collection year forward so customers receive the same number of collections.

For updates on the service, visit: www.newforest.gov.uk/gardenwaste