STREET cleaning and the emptying litter and dog poo bins is due to restart in Darlington on Monday.

The services, along with bulky waste collection, were suspended in March because of the pandemic.

Darlington Borough Council says all of its street scene services will be running again from June 1.

Councillor Andy Keir, the council’s cabinet member for local services, said: “We’ve been keeping things under constant review and adapting as and when further changes have been introduced nationally to slowly ease lockdown.

“As businesses and other organisations now start reopening, it is important to reinstate street scene services with the appropriate safe working practices and social distancing in place.

“Extra staff, redeployed from other council services, and additional vehicles have been drafted in to enable us to achieve this.

“Residents can do their bit to help by being responsible in taking their rubbish home, only putting rubbish in their bins and not leaving any side waste, recycling as much as they can and respect social distancing rules by staying at least 2m from our staff."

“We know the changes that are in place to allow our town centres and other areas to open up more, and the different ways of working, may take some getting used to – but working together we can get through this.”

Residents are reminded that while the tip has reopened, its current operating hours remain at seven days a week, 8am-4.30pm (last entry at 4pm) with strict social distancing in place, which limits the capacity of the site and people are being encouraged only to use it as a last resort.

A booking system has also been introduced to i reduce traffic congestion and from Monday, anyone without a booking will be turned away.

Garden waste collections also resumed earlier this month, on a two-weekly cycle.