Bin waste could remain uncollected for weeks in one part of Scotland after binmen have been re-directed to help transport children to school amid a shortage of bus drivers.

More than 1,000 children in Lanarkshire were reportedly left without transport to school when they returned to classrooms in Scotland last week.

North Lanarkshire Council said in a statement that transport issues were due to Strathclyde Partnership for Transport failing to “engage bus drivers” resulting in contracts not being drawn up in time for the end of summer holiday.

As a result, the council said blue bin recycling collection in the county will be halted for three weeks and residents are urged to throw paper and card into the general waste bin, or make a trip to the recycling centre themselves.

“Residents may be aware that Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) failed to put in place a number of school bus contracts in time for the start of term,” a council spokesperson said.

“While work has been carried out to reduce the number of school bus routes affected, many remain unserviced. The council has a legal duty to transport children who are eligible to school.

“To assist SPT, who have sourced some additional buses but have been unable to engage drivers, some of our appropriately trained and qualified drivers will be required to drive buses for school transport.

“While we seek to engage replacement drivers as quickly as possible, this means that we have taken the difficult decision to suspend collection of blue paper and card bins for the next three weeks, until Monday September 12.”

SPT has blamed the driver shortage on “an unprecedented volume of renewals” for mainstream school transport contracts and has apologised to parents.

They assured families it was “continuing to work to resolve this situation as a matter of urgency.”

One woman, whose son has been affected, said the issue should have been dealt with earlier.

“The kids are off school for almost seven weeks and why at the eleventh hour there wasn’t enough drivers last week when the kids returned in the big issue,” the woman, named only as Lynsey, told LBC.

The temporary solution to bring bin lorry drivers in to take children to school was “clutching at straws”, she added.

“The problem with the temporary solution is this is now affecting people in the community who don’t have children that use school transport and now their bins aren’t going to be emptied for a few weeks, and understandably they’re not happy.”

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