Huntingdon District Council (HDC) says it is prepared for any possible disruption to bin collections ahead of the planned industrial action by UNISON members between August 21 and 25.

The district council will work towards making sure most services continue unimpacted, and in order to provide statutory services for refuse and recycling, it says it has made the "difficult decision" to suspend garden waste and bulky waste collection services during the period of industrial action.

The service will resume from August 28.

Residents are asked not to put their garden waste bins out for collection during the planned strike period and, instead, should wait for their next collection day from August 28 onwards. 

HDC also confirmed, dialogue with UNISON on the ongoing pay dispute will continue and any changes to service delivery will be publicised as soon as possible.

Council staff have received a four per cent pay award for this financial year along with a further £1,000 one-off award to all contracted staff in March. 

Unison has said this is not enough and staff will still be struggling to pay bills. 

The council has a offered a further payment to be made in December which would result in all contracted staff receiving at least the Real Living Wage in 2023/24. This addressed one of UNISON’s core requests, but this proposal has not been accepted to date.

Cllr Martin Hassall, executive councillor for corporate and shared services, said: “We have made the commitment to rewarding staff fairly, and offering other benefits, whenever we are able to do so.

"Currently we are waiting to hear if our pay proposal is accepted, but if industrial action does go ahead, we have plans in place to minimise disruption to our frontline services.

“Again, we thank residents for their patience during this time and we continue to work to seek a solution that results in UNISON withdrawing their planned action. Any updates will be communicated to residents as soon as possible.”