GARDEN waste collections in Crawley has been suspended for one week amid "staff shortages" caused by Covid-19.

Green bins will not be collected in the area again until after Friday, August 20, as the council faces staff shortages caused by the virus.

It means there will be no garden waste collections between Wednesday, August 11, and Friday, August 20.

Writing on Facebook, a Crawley Borough Council spokesman said: "Unfortunately we have temporarily suspended garden waste collections from Wednesday, August 11, initially up to and including Friday 20 August.

"This is due to staff shortages as a result of COVID-19.

"We apologise to residents affected by this disruption and hope to resume normal services as soon as possible.

"We thank you for your patience and understanding."

The suspension follows Brighton and Hove City Council's decision to scrap waste collection for two weeks earlier this week.

A "pingdemic" among Cityclean staff that saw some residents' rubbish go uncollected for weeks.

One group of tenants whose rubbish went uncollected for nearly three months said they are still suffering from a fly infestation.

Some people in Pippin block, in Bowring Way, Brighton, said they had to keep their windows shut in hot weather to try to keep the flies out.

They claimed when they contacted Brighton and Hove City Council about the problem, they were told it wasn’t urgent and they should close their windows.

The rubbish built up when the council stopped collecting from the Pippin block’s bin store, having switched to a new bin store in the neighbouring Cherry block.

Tenants and leaseholders said they hadn’t been told about the change and endured 11 missed collections.