PROBLEMS with staffing and a lack of available vehicles meant problems with uncollected waste for some York residents.

A statement issued by City of York Council Waste Services on Facebook apologised to residents in Murton, Holtby and Tang Hall after their garden waste could not be collected “because of staffing shortages”, and urged residents to put their rubbish out by 7am on Saturday, when the council will attempt to collect it.

However, the authority also announced further problems with waste collection on Tuesday in a different area of the city.

The statement said: “Unfortunately, we have also had three of our recycling wagons off the road today.

“We do not have enough spare recycling vehicles to cover for this situation so we have had to use refuse wagons and collect the material comingled in the Acomb area.

"Please be assured that this material will be taken to our recycling facility where it will be sorted and recycled along with the rest of the material we collect.”

On Monday, driver shortages also affected green waste collections in south Fulford, Naburn and Elvington, and the authority said it would try to collect from those areas again on Saturday.

A council spokesperson apologised for the delays, which they said were due to “the ongoing shortage of HGV drivers”.

They said: “Two of our vehicles were recently being serviced, which meant they were off the road, which is normally scheduled to ensure it does not impact on service delivery. On this occasion, due to a breakdown and a tighter than normal schedule, there was not sufficient resource to replace the vehicle ‘like for like’.”

The spokesperson said “100 per cent of the recycling collected was still sent to be recycled - 93 per cent was still collected as normal and seven per cent was co-mingled recycling (mixed with other recyclables) and then sorted”.

“Badly parked cars” also meant household waste could not be collected from ‘The Covert’ Hunters Way, off Tadcaster Road, New Walk Terrace and Lower Ebor Street on Monday.