A councillor has paid tribute to waste crews in west Suffolk who braved last week’s severe weather conditions to empty residents’ bins.

David Brown, Forest Heath cabinet member for operations, said he believes the only bins emptied in the whole county during the cold snap were in west Suffolk.

He said: “I want to pay tribute to the crews who really stood for everything a council is here to do.

“They got to as many of our customers as humanly possible, they were out and about lending a hand where they could and they did it as a matter of course.

“We believe west Suffolk had the only freighters in the county out last week, and we are proud to have collected up to 95% of Forest Heath’s 18,000 blue bins.

“We monitored road and weather conditions carefully and went back for bins where we could, but there are some pockets that we couldn’t get to.”

“We hope the households we missed understand why it happened. We have now moved on to empty black bins, which means their next blue bin collection won’t

be until next week.

“If they are having difficulties with space, they can call customer services on 01638 719000 and we will send out special recycling sacks that can be left as side waste next week.”