Eleven binmen were injured in Maidstone as teams battled to collect waste in icy conditions last week.

Maidstone council – which employs 68 front-line waste collection staff – said several members of its waste teams suffered minor injuries from slips and falls due to the wintry weather, and thanked staff for their hard work amidst difficult conditions.

The information came as the council apologised to residents for missed collections, and said they were unlikely to collect missed bins until their next scheduled date.

Cllr David Burton, leader of Maidstone Borough Council said: “Unfortunately the icy conditions have really affected our services; for all of last week our crews were unable to start work as early as they normally would.

"We also had 11 staff reporting injuries from slipping on the ice and need to consider the health and safety of our crews, who do go out in all conditions and as a result lost more than 1,000 working hours. I would like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to all our waste collection staff for all that they do.”

The council says residents with missed black bin waste collections are unlikely to have their bin emptied until their next planned collection dates. It asked residents to return bins to their property and put any excess waste in secure sacks for collection next week.

The council also said there have been extra crews operating across the borough following the disruption, but have been focusing on collecting missed recycling bins as "the materials are very often bulky and more difficult to contain, as opposed to residual waste."

Residents with missed recycling collections are asked to leave the bin visible and available for collection all this week.

The council is also reminding residents that as Boxing Day and the New Year Bank Holiday fall on a Monday, there will changes to refuse collections affecting all properties in Maidstone for two weeks between Monday, December 26 until Friday, January 6. All normal collections will be delayed by one day.

Monday collections are moved to Tuesday, and so on, until Friday’s collections are rescheduled for Saturday.

All garden waste and bulky collections will be suspended while the crews assist other collection teams.

All services return to normal on Monday, January 9.

Cllr Burton added: “We really do understand that not having your rubbish collected creates problems for everyone so it is a priority for us, however on this occasion we have not been able to catch up. So we are asking anyone who still has not had their normal black bin rubbish collected to put any extra waste in black sacks and this will be taken next time.

“Residents with recycling bins should leave them available for emptying.

“In addition, we are also concentrating on communal residential developments as these can cause a fire risk if not emptied quickly.

“We are doing all we can to bring the service up to date and do apologise to those residents where we have missed your collection.”