Bin collections in South Derbyshire are currently being carried out as usual despite the difficulties caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, the authority says.

It says it has redeployed staff and utilised additional vehicles to ensure the collections are able to go ahead and observe social distancing.

But all 10 council-run tips in Derbyshire and Derby are currently closed until further notice - including the recycling centre in Newhall.

The council says this will remain the case for weeks, not days.

This is to give it time to work out how to open them safely – working with other councils and the police.

During the past few weeks, our councils have battled to retain consistent bin collections – it is the service which requires the most of their resources and has the highest level of public scrutiny.

However, the Covid-19 crisis put significant pressure on this service, with bin collection staff at home self isolating or in hospital with the virus.

Bin collection staff in the Derbyshire Dales are receiving abuse from a minority of residents during their pick-ups.

This is due to "refusing to collect other waste in addition to containers actually scheduled".

Staff were also attempting to uphold social distancing measures by having fewer people carrying out collections, meaning not as many collections could be carried out per day.

Most of Derbyshire's councils had to scrap garden waste collections for the past month and others faced extreme difficulties in continuing recycling pick-ups.

Efforts were geared towards ensuring general waste collections were maintained.

Councils had also reported issued with getting access to bins due to parked cars – caused by more residents being at home during the day and blocking streets.

In Bolsover, authorities warned against flushing baby wipes and kitchen roll down toilets because it was causing "disgusting" and significant blockages which had to be cleared by staff, using up vital council resources.

Now our councils, such as Amber Valley and Erewash, are restarting garden waste pick-ups as the nation is said to be past the peak of the virus outbreak.

Councils still advise that household in which a person has symptoms of the virus should wrap waste in one bag, tie it, put it in second bag, and then leave this waste for 72 hours before putting it in the bin.

This is to prevent bin collection staff coming into contact with contaminated waste such as tissues, wipes and disposable gloves.

All council-run tips in the county and city remain closed until further notice – despite councils outside the county making plans to reopen theirs over the weekend and later this month.