COUNCIL staff are being retrained to ensure that York has enough refuse collectors throughout the epidemic.

Staff who normally cut grass or clean the streets are being diverted from those services to man dustbin lorries and recycling collections.

City of York Council wants to ensure that when permanent refuse and recycling collectors go off ill, or have to quarantine, there will be others who can take their place.

Last week the council launched an recruitment drive for more drivers and loaders and announced that it was cutting back on non-essential services so that staff could concentrate on vital services.

Cllr Paula Widdowson, executive member for climate change, said the council was using techniques it used during Storm Dennis and Storm Ciara last winter when frontline staff were diverted to flood related work.

“These are unprecedented times and this will mean some non-essential services will need to be temporarily suspended so that we can redeploy all our staff into keeping essential services running,” she said.

Non-essential roadworks have been put on hold.