Households have been warned about disruption to Christmas and New Year bin and recycling collections amid a shortage of drivers.

The private company providing the service, Serco, says it has a 10% shortage of drivers.

At the same time, services and businesses across the country are suffering staff shortages linked to absence caused by the rise of Covid infections.

The Council has promises that rubbish collections across the Borough will take place on the normal days across the festive period, despite the Bank Holidays.

However, its collection teams are under enormous pressure given the rise in the number of black bags and other waste, particularly cardboard boxes.

Residents have complained in some areas of missed collections and waste left on streets as hard-pressed binmen try to keep to their schedules.

In a video message, the Council leader, Gareth Roberts, has asked residents to bear with the rubbish collection teams and, where possible, help them to cope with the waste.

He said: "We know there are problems, you know that there are problems, and I know that many of you are frustrated, and believe me no Council leader wants to have to record videos like this to explain why there is a drop off in the services which residents expect.

"We collect 1.3 million collections from across the borough ranging from Barnes all the way through to Hampton, every month.

"The problem is that there are issues that are beyond our control at the moment. You will be aware there are shortages of HGV drivers across all sectors of the economy and there are also shortages of collection staff as well. And as we move into the winter months, with the rise of the COVID variant Omicron, we are expecting to see further staff shortages.

"This isn't an easy time for any council to have to deal with issues such as these and Christmas is always the busiest time for the waste and recycling collection.

"We are doing what we can to ensure we are holding Serco, the service provider, to account…However, the immediate issue is Christmas.

"We know that our bins crews are going to be working flat out over the next couple of weeks. There are going to be many of them working double shifts and they are going to be spending very, very little time with their families, and I know that you will want to ensure that they are given the space that they need in order to do the job - a very difficult job at a very difficult time.

"So please do bear with us over the next couple of weeks. We appreciate the service isn't quite what you'd expect, but we do want it to get better and with your help we can make it better."

Serco said it is taking steps to recruit and train new drivers, however it accepted services are below expected standards.

It said: "The national HGV driver shortage, which is affecting many councils and businesses currently, has had an impact on our Richmond team in 2021.

"We currently have 10% of driving roles still unfilled despite running HGV recruitment campaigns offering flexible hours, job sharing and enhanced benefits packages to attract people into the roles who would not traditionally consider this industry.

"This coupled with COVID absences, the need to adjust working practices to keep our teams safe and increased waste volumes during this period have from time to time impacted our ability to fully deliver our services across the borough. However, our waste and recycling teams have been, and still are, working extremely hard to minimise any disruption to our residents where possible, for which we thank them.

"This is a time of the year when more waste and recycling is created than usual so, to help our teams work more effectively and efficiently, at an already challenging time, we would be grateful if residents could break down any cardboard boxes and leave them tied up next to their recycling boxes."