COUNCILLORS in West Devon have backed urgent calls to Home Secretary Priti Patel for help in sorting out a national lorry driver shortage which threatens to disrupt the borough’s recycling service.

Residents across the area have been left with uncollected waste because West Devon Borough Council has lost a quarter of its drivers.

The driver shortage crisis has been blamed on the joint effects of Brexit and the recent ‘pingdemic’, which saw thousands of workers forced to self-isolate after pings on their mobile phones told them they had been in contact with someone with Covid-19.

The crisis led to the borough council asking waste collection staff to work longer hours in an attempt to catch up with a growing backlog of refuse.

Now borough council chiefs have joined local authorities across Devon in pleading with the Government for support to help sort the problem out.

Cllr Lynn Daniel, West Devon lead member for waste, said: ‘Our contractor, FCC Environment, is one of the signatories on an open letter that the Environmental Services Association (ESA) has sent to the Home Secretary Priti Patel.

‘West Devon Borough Council is supportive of FCC Environment’s lobbying to the Government, sharing a similar stance with other authorities in Devon and the wider South West.

‘In the letter, which represents local authority waste companies and recycling businesses, the ESA says that the shortage of drivers could hinder the waste sector’s ability to deliver upon the Government’s resource-efficiency and environmental ambitions in the ‘longer term’. The letter adds immediate relief is ‘urgently’ needed for ‘this acute situation’.

‘The situation in West Devon is that there are four driver vacancies out of 16 positions. FCC Environment is currently running a campaign to attract more trained LGV 1 and 2 drivers to support its domestic waste collection crews.’

Late collections of refuse resulted in a surge of complaints from West Devon residents on social media that there collections had either been delayed or missed. Across Devon, councils are putting pressure on the Government to address a shortage of HGV drivers causing disruption to bin collections.

Torbay, Teignbridge and North Devon councils have written called on the Government to allow temporary visas for European HGV drivers to help sort out the shortage.

‘At the time of writing, North Devon Council are attempting to fill seven vacancies, Torbay Council eight vacancies, and Teignbridge Council 10 vacancies,’ wrote Liberal Democrat councillors Steve Darling, David Worden and Alistair Dewhirst. ‘This equates to approximately 20 per cent of the HGV workforce in driver vacancies and it is proving very challenging to fill this resourcing gap given the dynamics of this labour market.’