New Forest District Council to extend pay bonuses for HGV drivers for an extra year to ensure services continue

A NATIONAL shortage of HGV drivers has prompted NFDC to keep paying its team more for a further year to "safeguard" services.

In 2021 the council agreed to apply a 7.5% boost to its HGV driver salaries, which expires in March.

A report to a recent meeting of the ruling cabinet said: "During 2021 and 2022 some frontline waste and recycling services have been suspended because of staff shortages.

"There continues to be a national shortage of HGV drivers. In November and December, responses to HGV job advertisements were very low.

"The size of the staffing pool has been reviewed to ensure it is adequately resourced to provide resilience in periods of high staff absence."

NFDC waste and recycling HGV driver salaries are just above the average of £27,900, it said.

But the council needs to maintain its position compared to neighbouring authorities in order to attract and retain staff.

It added: "This is particularly the case as the services provided by NFDC are currently more labour intensive than many of our neighbours.

"Therefore, in order to safeguard services, it is proposed to continue to apply the [additional pay]."

The report explained that in order to keep operations going in 2023, three drivers and three loaders would be recruited from April to September, at a cost of £95,000.

It added: "These additional staff will improve resilience during a period with traditionally higher levels of absence."

The decision was signed off by the council's cabinet member for environment and coastal services, Cllr Steve Davies.