Dorset Council is pleased to announce that bin collections in Weymouth and Portland will begin to resume from tomorrow (Tuesday 17 November).
Following the major fire at our Crookhill depot in Chickerell, all bin collections were suspended as 16 collection vehicles were destroyed or heavily damaged in the blaze last Sunday.
However, Council officers have worked tirelessly over the past 24 hours to get replacements in place and clean up the site so it can be used to once again store waste and park vehicles.
As a result, some collections in Weymouth and Portland will resume tomorrow (Tuesday 17 November), with all collections reinstated the next day (Wednesday 18 November).
Details are as follows: –
- Rubbish, food and garden waste collections will take place as normal tomorrow (Tuesday 17 November). If your collection day is a Tuesday, please put your bins out as you usually would
- However, there will be no recycling collections tomorrow (Tuesday 17 November) as we wait for replacement vehicles to be delivered
- All collections will take place as normal from Wednesday 18 November onwards
- There won’t be any catch-up collections for kerbside rubbish and recycling. Any household that did not receive a collection on Monday 16 or Tuesday 17 November should keep hold of their waste and put it out on the next appropriate collection day when we’ll pick up any waste we missed as a result of the service suspension.
Residents are reminded that food waste collections are weekly and that both Weymouth and Portland Household Recycling Centres are open daily from 10am to 4pm if anybody cannot wait until their next bin collection. Please note that both these sites are observing COVID-19 secure restrictions, so there may be long queues.
Dorset Council also wants to emphasise that, while we have enough resources to resume waste collections in Weymouth and Portland, resources will be stretched in the short-term and services may be more prone to disruption than usual in the coming weeks. Some street cleansing services may also be disrupted as specialist large sweeper vehicles are yet to be replaced.
While Fire and Rescue officers are keeping a close eye on the Crookhill site, Environment Agency officers were in attendance today and were satisfied that the impact to the surrounding environment was minimal. 20,000L of waste liquid was also pumped from tanks on site and removed; the contents primarily consisting of the water and foam used to extinguish the fire.
Cllr. Jill Haynes, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Customer Services and Communities, said:
“This is a phenomenal achievement. To lose most of our vehicle fleet at Crookhill but resume the majority of our bin collection services less than 2 days later is testament to the hard work of all the officers and agencies involved in tackling this incident. On behalf of Dorset Council and the residents of Weymouth and Portland, well done and thank you.
For those who did not receive a collection on Monday or Tuesday, I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause but thank you for your patience and understanding. Please bear with us as we get things back to normal.”
