Waste collection in South Kesteven rose by 30 per cent during the lockdown, says leading SKDC councillor Dr Peter Moseley.

With people having to stay and work at home more, there was also a "large uplift" in "green waste," continued the Cabinet Member of Commercial and Operations.

Coun Moseley (Con-Aveland) says council refuse collections were unaffected by the pandemic, something which some other councils did not achieve.

"The service did not fall over, maybe the drivers had to make some extra trips to the transfer station, but it worked as before. Every week some 80,000 bins were emptied across the district."

To show its appreciation of their extra had work, and any potential risk, SKDC awarded a £50 a week bonus early on during the lockdown.

Initially, SKDC refuse staff were the lowest paid among the 'in-house' refuse collection crews in Lincolnshire by "about £2-3pw.

"Other councils use private contractors so it is far from clear how much they pay them."

Coun Moseley continued: "Since the March lockdown, they have been the best paid. Our loaders got a £50 per week bonus. We understand our neighbours, North Kesteven, awarded a £100 one off bonus."

"We have treated our staff well and we really appreciate them. What we recognised was we wanted to do a lot of early benchmarking. We have been quite pro-active and I'm really proud of the work our guys do. They have really delivered for us."

However, with the bonus ending in September, the council sought ways to stop pay dropping so much, so it as now introduced a 'market supplement' to bring wages up to a 'market rate' as a prelude to a more formal pay revision at the end of the financial year in April.

"The market supplement is less than the bonus but now the emergency is over. The level of bonus was unsustainable for us as a council. We were very pleased to do it. It's only right that we align the pay to the market rate."

Coun Moseley added that with the 'green waste' service proving increasingly popular, that people recognise that for £36 a year for the first bin, and half that for additional bins its excellent value for money.

"People recognise it's exceptional value for money, and it saves them from booking in or putting themselves at risk if they are vulnerable."

*This is the second in a series of articles of mark Recycle Week 2020.