Concerns have been have been raised about a council being among the many organisations to be suffering from nation-wide HGV driver shortages.

Carlisle City Council's Portfolio Holder for Environment and Transport, Nigel Christian called the national shortage of HGV drivers a "worry" in a council meeting on Tuesday September 14 after he was asked what the council was going to do order to retain staff.

According to Cllr Christian's report to council, Carlisle City Council have had to reduce the main sweeping programme and "postpone some planned litter clearances verges" to allow staff to be re-allocated in order to avoid disruption to collection services.

At the meeting, Cllr Davison asked what the council was going to do "in order for us to retain staff and to ensure that we can maintain our services to the standard that we would like them to be."

Cllr Christian replied: "HGV drivers is certainly a worry. We are in the process of recruiting at the moment and we do have some drivers shortlisted for that. We have had a reasonable response.

"Across the country there is an issue with numbers and I think there will be considerable changes in the way that we manage ourselves in order to manage that change.

"I think this is the inevitable consequence of leaving Europe. I didn't vote for it, but it has happened and now we have to learn to deal with it."

A Carlisle City Council spokesperson said: “Like other authorities and organisations, Covid-19 is impacting on our service delivery.

“We are working hard to minimise any disruption to our services, however some refuse and recycling collections may be affected.

“We continue to make every effort to collect on the scheduled date and time, but in some instances this may be delayed.

“We are in the process of recruiting for more staff to support the service.”