A COUNCIL leader has denied that he ordered an extra bin collection to his home ahead of the bin strike.

The leader of Brighton and Hove city council said he did not order Cityclean to collect rubbish from his home over the weekend.

It comes after the GMB Sussex trade union tweeted on Saturday that a refuge collection team was given instructions to collect rubbish and recycling from Cllr Phélim Mac Cafferty's area ahead of the industrial action starting tomorrow.

The Tweet last week stated: "Members of Brighton and Hove workforce in refuse and recycling have been given instructions today to collect Phelim Mac Cafferty, leader of the council's refuse and recycling ahead of the industrial action taking place next week when he was not due for a collection."

The union claims that the councillor was not due a collection over the weekend but management had "taken a vehicle off its regular work" to collect his rubbish on Saturday and Sunday.

Cllr Mac Cafferty said he did not order an extra collection to his area.

He said: “Once again this is another baseless accusation without a crumb of truth."

The industrial strike action is set to begin tomorrow, Tuesday 5, following a unanimous vote by GMB members.

The Argus: Bins overflowing in Brighton

It was triggered by disputes about pay and working conditions, as a result Brighton’s Cityclean, recycling, commercial waste and HGV drivers will be striking for 14 days.

GMB are calling on the council to settle an ongoing dispute around unilateral imposed daily changes and removal of drivers from long standing rounds.

Branch secretary Mark Turner said: “I am sure the council will want people to believe that this is just the GMB union and its members causing disruption once again, but the truth is that this avoidable dispute is completely as of a result of the council's own making."

Following the announcement of the strike action, the council restated its “continuous commitment” to work with the trade unions and staff to resolve the dispute and “provide a good service to residents”.

A council spokesman said Covid-19 had a “detrimental impact on the health of Cityclean staff”.

“The country also now faces a national shortage of HGV drivers due mainly to EU HGV drivers no longer being able to obtain visas to work in the UK,” he said.

The spokesman said that this has led to pressure within the Cityclean service and that the council thanks Cityclean staff who have continued to work "incredibly hard in these challenging and unprecedented times".

He added that there has been occasions where “it’s felt appropriate to make crew changes or move a member of staff from one round or crew to another”.

The industrial action commencing on Tuesday will be the first of a number of strike dates according to GMB.

Have you got a story for us? Email news@theargus.co.uk or contact us here.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the latest news.

Sign up to our newsletter to get updates sent straight to your inbox.

You can also call us on 01273 021 400.