MORE THAN a third of Rochford’s waste staff have phoned in sick as a result of Covid-19 - leaving the district “playing catch up” with rubbish collections.

Rochford Council has said the coronavirus-related staff shortages led to delays in collecting waste, with 22 out of 62 of their team off after either testing positive for the virus or in self-isolation.

Throughout this week delays were caused to the council’s compostable waste collection service and bin collections, but council bosses hope services will be back to normal by today.

Council leader Simon Wootton, says sickness was “inevitable”.

He added: “Across Rochford we have 62 staff employed by our contractor Suez. There are 22 reporting sick due to Covid issues, whether this is down to testing positive or they are isolating.

“We have been catching up during the course of this week, Wednesday night there were seven streets who hadn’t had their green waste picked up. But by the end of this week we hope it will be sorted.

“It was inevitable that at some point there was going to be a stress on services due to staff sickness. But Suez and the staff have done extremely well, they are still on the frontline.”

Available resources were instead used to focus on collecting non-recycling waste and recycling waste.

And Mr Wootton says that Rochford waste has risen by 35 per cent since the start of the pandemic, largely down to people working from home, home deliveries, and people clearing out their belongings.

Arthur Williams, Rochford’s portfolio holder for the environment, has joined Mr Wootton in thanking the “pandemic heroes” for all their work in this trying time.

Mr Williams added: “These people are fantastic - they are real pandemic heroes in my eyes. I wish them well and hope they get better soon.”