Council staff are re-training as bin collectors and pitching in at a local food bank in a bid to help the borough get through the coronavirus crisis.
North Tyneside Council staff are being retrained and redeployed to help maintain critical services across the borough.
As part of the council’s response to the crisis, the authority has carried out a skills audit to determine how and where the workforce could be redeployed to provide invaluable frontline support and keep essential services running.
The council is also sending staff to voluntarily lend a hand at the Bay Foodbank, in North Shields, as part of its efforts to help shield vulnerable residents.
Among the first to be re-assigned will be staff from environmental services, who have volunteered to be retrained as refuse collectors to ensure that people’s bins continue to be emptied throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
The local authority collects household waste and recycling bins from 100,000 households each week and the move will help to protect the service against potential staff shortages in the coming weeks, as collection crew staff begin to self-isolate at home.
North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn, said: “These are extraordinary times and we need to take extraordinary measures to ensure that we continue to deliver the essential services on which people depend.
“If we have any shortages or gaps, we have done a lot of work to identify other staff members who have the right skills and can step in and ensure we have enough people and resources to do the necessary work on the frontline.
“Our staff have many skills that can be easily transferred to other areas and I am immensely proud of the resourcefulness and dedication shown by all our colleagues who continue to get the job done in very difficult circumstances, and the ones who have come forward and shown a willingness to take their place if needed.
“I’m sure our residents would agree with me that they are a credit to the council and the borough.”
