Residents on Harrogate’s Harlow Hill say they fear they could go six weeks without a recycling collection after the last two rounds were missed.

Harrogate Borough Council cancelled some of Tuesday’s bin lorry rounds and notified residents that afternoon by text message.

It advised people to leave their recycling boxes and bags out and said crews would attempt to return later in the week. If they had not been collected by Saturday evening, the council said they would not be done until the next scheduled date 10 days later.

For some residents, however, it is a second consecutive missed collection. Bruce Allison, who lives on the Castle Hill estate off Whinney Lane, said:

“It did not happen on July 19 due to work suspension in the excess heat – we were sent a text saying that HBC were trying to catch up, expected to have it done by 5pm on the Saturday and to leave our items outside. Nothing happened.

“This means we are looking at a gap of six weeks since our last recycling collection – a poor result in return for paying the highest council tax in Yorkshire.”

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The council said staff sickness was responsible for this week’s missed collections. It has vowed to prioritise those residents who also missed the last collection during the heatwave.

A spokesperson said:

“Unfortunately, due to driver shortages as a result of sickness, some recycling collections this week are either delayed or have been postponed until the next collection.

“Unless residents have specifically heard otherwise, we are aiming to return before close of play on Saturday and will be prioritising properties that may have been missed previously because of the extreme heat.

“Any properties that we are unable to return to, we will endeavour to collect any additional material on their next scheduled recycling collection.

“We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Harrogate hospital bosses said today that 196 staff currently have covid or are isolating as cases of Omicron continue to surge in the district.

Steve Russell, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said rising infection rates were putting pressure on staff, but added that the trust had contingency plans in place to deal with the increase in absences.

Several hospital trusts across the country have been forced to declare a “critical incident” due to the number of staff who are ill or self-isolating with covid.

But Mr Russell told the Stray Ferret that Harrogate hospital has not declared such an incident.

He added that the hospital was still in a position to provide priority services, despite rising infection rates.

Mr Russell said:

“Rising covid infection rates amongst the public and NHS staff are certainly putting pressure on trusts around the country, including our own. However, we are continuing to provide priority services for our community and have not needed to declare a critical incident.

“There are just over 5,000 people employed at HDFT, and of these 126 colleagues are currently absent from work as they have caught covid and 70 are in self-isolation.

“Currently at Harrogate District Hospital there are 23 patients who have tested positive for covid and nine of these are primarily in hospital for treatment for the virus.”

Rising cases of the Omicron variant has forced staff at a number of NHS trusts in England into isolation, which has led to severe and unsafe shortages of workers.

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On Sunday, United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs four hospitals in the county, declared a critical incident as it was unable to maintain safe staffing levels.

Since then, seven other hospital trusts have made a similar declaration including University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

In the Harrogate district, the surge in cases of Omicron has seen the seven-day covid rate increase to 1,357 per 100,000 people – the highest it has ever been since the start of the pandemic.

Steve Russell, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

Mr Russell said that Harrogate hospital had contingency plans in place should staffing levels deteriorate further.

They include redeploying staff to services which require support and having dedicated staff who are prepared to take on additional shifts.

He said:

“The staff absences at the trust is creating pressure for our teams, for instance fewer nursing and medical staff means that whilst we are still able to treat our patients’ for their illness or condition and ensure their safety, we are sometimes not able to provide the level of holistic support that we would like.

“It is important that we do all we can to maintain our services so that our patients’ care is not disrupted and we have contingency plans in place should the level of absences continue to rise, for instance redeploying staff where needed or having dedicated staff who are prepared to take on additional shifts. 

“Of course, depending upon staff absences, the situation may arise in the future where we need to prioritise acute care, which could impact upon admissions for operations, tests and outpatients appointments.”