A LOCAL authority and its waste and recycling partner have contingency plans in place to prevent the fuel crisis and lorry driver shortage disrupting bin rounds.

Burnley borough's environmental services boss Cllr Bea Foster used the authority's Full Council meeting on Wednesday night to reassure residents that rubbish collections would continue to go ahead as normal.

The Labour politician spoke out after Whittlefield with Ightenhill ward Conservative Cllr Don Whitaker said: "There is no fuel crisis. There is no shortage. There is plenty of fuel. It has all been hyped up."

Cllr Foster said: "The current operating environment remains challenging for waste and recycling services.

"In addition to the impacts Covid has had upon the service, there are additional challenges relating to the national driver shortages and fuel.

"This continues to be managed closely by Streetscene and partner Urbaser to ensure there are no adverse impacts upon the services being delivered.

"They have their own sources of fuel for the wagons separate from normal petrol stations. If this fails they have further contingency plans.

"There should be no disruption to collection rounds unless things get worse.

"The following steps have been put in place to hopefully avoid any service suspensions that have adversely affected other local authorities causes by driver shortages.

"They include links with local driver agencies to secure additional drivers on a short-term basis and the training of five members of the workforce to upskill them so they can drive, likely to be completed early January.

"Urbaser has recently recruited two additional drivers to the workforce and as a contingency plan managers and supervisors can drive as an emergency back-up."