Residents have been urged to clear Christmas trees from the street as the council confirms they will be collected - but not for another month.

Sad-looking spruces have been lining pavements across the Canterbury district, where collections have been postponed.

The city council's waste collection contractor, Serco, was due to start picking up Christmas trees a fortnight ago, but the service had to be suspended due to "the level of sickness and isolation" among staff.

The authority's waste collection service has since been brought in-house.

Its newly formed company Canenco is now set to collect Christmas trees during the first two weeks of March.

In the meantime, residents are being asked to take their trees back in, and to put them back out for collection on March 1.

The city council has apologised for the delay.

A spokesman said: "The fact that we were unable to do them at the end of January as originally planned due to Covid staffing issues was very frustrating and we are sorry to all residents whose trees have been knocking around in gardens, garages and probably many other places for longer than anyone would have wanted.

"Please take your trees in for now and put them out again on 1 March.

"We cannot provide exact dates for when each road will be done but we will make our way round the district during those two weeks."

They added that trees taller than six foot will not be collected, unless they are chopped up into smaller pieces.

Residents do not have to subscribe to the council's garden bin service to take advantage of the Christmas tree collection.

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