City of York Council have issued a statement saying “there will be no household waste, recycling or green bin collections during the week commencing 24 December”.

“There will also be no waste collections on Tuesday 1 January 2013. Residents expecting a collection on this day will have their waste collected on another day that week.

The council will make every effort to collect waste on the scheduled day but, due to the amount of waste generated at this time of the year, some delays to the schedule may occur. Residents are asked to make full use of the Kerbside recycling service, local recycling banks or the recycling facilities at the household waste sites to prevent unnecessary waste going to landfill.

To prevent a build up of waste, all households will receive an extra collection either the week commencing 17 December or the week commencing 31 December.

Wrapping paper and greetings cards can be recycled in recycling boxes or shared recycling bins and real Christmas trees can be recycled in the green bins as long as it fits inside the bin with the lid closed

Residents are advised to refer to their collection calendars, which were delivered to all households recently, to find out what their collection arrangements are this Christmas”.

Household Waste Recycling Centres will be closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. The sites will be open as usual on all other days for residents to bring their excess festive waste for recycling.

For more information on waste and recycling visit: www.york.gov.uk/environment/waste/ or follow @CityofYork on Twitter

The restricted collections are due to the Council cutting back on overtime payments. We think that the Council is wrong to cancel the New Years Day collections. Anyone with a grumble should ring Cllr David Levene (01904 270068) who is responsible for the decision.